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Katya Logacheva,15
Diana Danchenko,17
THE SOZH
Among important rivers of Belarus we can name the Sozh. There is no agreement about the origin of its name. The
majority of scientists consider it to derive from the Finnish word "suzy" which means "wolf". These animals lived
once in great numbers in Sozh forests which even now stretch for hundreds kilometres along the river
banks. The Sozh has its beginning in Russia near Smolensk and having made
its 648 km way (493 km of them through Belarus), flows into the Dnieper near Loev.
When did the river come into exsistance? 17-18000 years ago Nothern part of Belarus up to Orsha latitude was still covered with ice.
Only after they melted the Sozh began to flow in today's directions. On the map we cam see hat the river forms many curves, often changing its direction.
For instance, it flows almost straight from East to West up to Slavgorod, and then takes a sharp turn to south. Thesame
curve is formed near the city of Gomel. There is such a curious fact about the Sozh: at first it flowed into
the Desna. it was 14 thousand year ago. But then it turned to west and became the tributary of the
Dnieper. The main reason for this turn is connected with the movement of the Earth crust: from time to time tectonic clefts come
to life and they form river valleys. These clefts are hidden deep under the
surface but rivers "feel" them. The shores of the Sozh are not symmetric . More often the right bank is steep the left one is sloping. Ancient people used to
choose the high right bank for their settlements. In such a way numerous villages and towns appeared. Among
them Gomel - one of the nicest Belarusians cities with its wonderful parks and magnificent palaces. The river is
rather wide. It is up to 230 metres in its lower part, the depth up to 5-6 metres, the speed
sometims 1,5 m/s. It is important to stress that the Sozh water was once the cleanest in Europe and now it still preserves its high degree of
cleanliness.For many years the Sozh has served as a major transport route for wood and building and materials
transportations. Besides, water - pipes bring Sozh water to the fields. Using natural resuorses of theriver, one has
to remember that they can to end. Communal and agricultural wastes spoil the quality of the river. It is necessary
to extend water saving zones along the Sozh. For this reason there were created Cherikov and Chchersk states
preserves. They are considered to be republican hunting preserves.Their main aim is to
maintain a certain amount of each species of animals, and to preserve natural habitat for trees and different plants. The most
wide spread trees here are pine, birch, blach older, fir-tree, oak, aspen and hornbeam. The beasts that one can meet here are a
river beaver, elk, wild pig, hare, fox, wolf, marten, roe deer, mink, otter, deer, racoon, badger and birds:
black-cock and capercalzie. At certain periods hunting for these animals and birds is allowed
but there are some kinds of animals and plants that are registered in the Red Book and are under protection. This is done to protect
them from extinction.
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