Dontheancient Tanais

Don, the ancient Tanais, a river of Russia rising in a small lake in the government of Tula, and flowing south through this and other governments and the district of the Don Cossacks, and falling by several mouths into the Azov after a course of 1,125 miles. A canal unites the upper course with the Volga, and a further union between the two rivers in the lower course is proposed. There are several tributaries, some of them navigable, and the Don is navigable below the junction of the Voronej. The stream is impeded by sand-banks, and the spring floods inundate a good deal of country, rendering it necessary to build many of the neighbouring dwellings upon piles. There is good fishing in the river. Two British rivers - in Yorkshire and Aberdeenshire respectively - bear the same name.