The floods generally occur but once a year — in the spring, when the snows melt. In this respect the Dnieper differs from the Dniester and is similar to all the other rivers of Eastern Europe. In the early summer, at the time of the greatest precipitation in the Dnieper country, small floods occur only occasionally, because the rain-water is stored up in the many swamps and moors of the upper Dnieper country. The spring high-water originates in the great masses of snow, which remain lying all thru winter, melting and flowing off all at once in the spring. After an ice-drift lasting 5 — 12 days, the high-water comes and lasts a month and a half. It attains its highest level in the middle of April; at this time the water stands at 3.2 meters above normal at Mogilev, 2.2. meters at Kiev, 2.6 meters at Kreminchuk, 2 meters at Kherson, 0.3 meters at the delta. The spring floods are at present becoming greater and more irregular, consequently more dangerous, too, than they have been previously. The progressive destruction of forests has contributed most to this condition. From Kiev down, the Dnieper River turns in a flat curve to the southeast and retains this direction as far as Katerinoslav. The right bank remains steadily high, torn by gorges and crowned with rock formations, with numerous niches, which betray former places of contact of the river bends. The view, defended especially by Russian scholars, that the mountain bank of the Dnieper, like that of all other Eastern European rivers, originated thru the influence of the rotation of the earth (Baer's Law), notably does not apply to the Dnieper, for the plain on the left very distinctly crosses over to the right shore at three places; at the mouth of the Stuhna below Kiev, between the mouth of the Ross and Cherkassi, and north of Chihirin. Recent movements of the crust of the earth, by elevating the Dnieper Plateau in huge sections, prepared the ground for the mountainous shores; the resulting steep declivities were attacked and transformed by the river current, aided by an effective simultaneous action of the winds.
The left bank of the river is very flat, taken up by swamps, lakes, old river beds and wooded fens. Great wildernesses of reeds cover the swampy banks of the numerous river arms. Great masses of sand brought by the tributaries on the left side are thrown up by the steppe winds and from dune landscapes in various places.
The tributaries of the Dnieper River in this section are of far less importance than the above mentioned northern ones. From the right side the river receives the plateau streams Stuhna, Ross and Tiasmin, from the left the Trubez, the Supo, the Sula with the Udai, the Psiol with the Khorol, and Holtva, Vorskla and Orel. All these rivers increase the volume of the main stream only to a slight degree. The width of the river at the point where it flows along in a single bed is regularly 1 km. on the average; at the narrowest part, to be sure, only 150 meters. Where the river branches off into several forks, however, the complete width, even at the time of low-water, is more than 4 km., at high-water over 8 km. The depth of the river, too, is very changeable. The tributaries on the left side bring great masses of sand to the main river bed, forming great banks of sand, which slowly move downward and cause great changeability of the depth. Over such banks of sand the depth of the river is hardly 1 Yi meters, but attains a depth of 1 2 meters where the river flows in a narrow bed.
Between Kiev and Kreminchuk, the majestic character of the Dnieper River is most apparent. The slight incline here causes a current of only one-third the speed of the current of the Volga. With an impressive calm the waters of the Dnieper flow along; it seems as tho the mirror-like mass of water were motionless. But soon, above the mouth of the Psiol, the speed of the current is suddenly tripled, so that the steamboats must exert their entire force in the up-stream trip. The low left bank begins slowly to rise; the river valley, up to this point, wide almost beyond reach of the eye, becomes narrow, the river forks and islands gradually disappear, and at the mouth of the Samara both banks approach the stream with steep precipices. The direction of the river becomes southerly and the section begins where the Dnieper breaks thru the granite ledge of the Ukrainian horst, the famous section of its rapids.