Finance.

Navy.

also are those of the recently founded Moscow Society of Friends of Natural Science, the Chemico-Physical Society, and various medical, educational, and other societies. The work achieved by Russian savants, especially in biology, physiology, and chemistry, and in the sciences descriptive of the vast territory of Russia, are well known to Europe.

The finances of the empire are in a most unsatisfactory condition. Although the revenue has doubled since 1856, and had reached 697,980,983 roubles (£69,798,098)1 in 1883, the cxpenditure, which was estimated at 721,337,344 roubles the same year, is always in excess of the income. The national debt is rapidly augmented both by loans and by issues of paper money so depreciated as to be worth only about 60 to 63 per cent. of its nominal value. On January 1, 1884, no less than 1,085,000,000 paper roubles were in circulation; and the national debt, the paper-money included, reached about £578,000,000, inclusive of the railway debt. The great defect of Russian finance is that its direct taxes are chiefly paid by the peasantry (91 per cent. of the whole), and the revenue is chiefly based on excise duties (direct taxes, 136,105,320 roubles; excise duties on spirits, 250,291,380; duties on tobacco and sugar, 28,569,500; import duties, 101,053,000). Of the yearly revenue no less than 436,000,000 roubles are spent in interest and sinking fund on the debt, and for war purposes.2

The zemstvos, which have an aggregate yearly income of about tairty million roubles, have also a yearly deficit of from three to five million roubles. The municipalities had in 1882 an income of only 40,076,748 roubles, there being only nine cities which had a budget of more than 500,000 roubles, and five above one million. The Russian army has been completely reorganized since the Crimean War, and compulsory military service was introduced in 1874. In 1884 the strength of the army on a peace footing was 532,764 men serving with the colours, 68,786 reserve troops, 55,599 Cossacks and irregulars, 72,626 local, depôt, and instruction troops, 27,468 officers, 129,736 horses, and 1844 guns. On a war footing there were 986,000 in the active army, 563,373 in the reserve, 148,057 Cossacks and irregulars, 178, 450 local, depôt, and instruction troops, 41,551 officers, 366,354 horses, and 3778 guns; that is, about 1,300,000 men in field, to which number 1,000,000 untrained militia could be added in case of need. These high figures, ought, however, to be much reduced on account of the deficiencies of mobilization.

The irregular troops consist of ten voiskos-Don, Kubañ, Terek, Astrakhan, Orenburg, Ural, West Siberia, Semiryetchensk, Transbaikalia, and Amur. All the men of these voiskos between sixteen and forty-one years of age are bound to be ready for service in turn in time of peace, and to equip themselves at their own expense, train and artillery being provided by Government. In their twofold capacity as peasant settlers and a military force, these men have contributed much to the conquest of Asia.

Since 1878 compulsory military service has been introduced in Finland. The Finnish troops (nine battalions of 4833 riflemen) must be employed, as a rule, for the defence of their own country. Notwithstanding large recent outlays, the Russian navy is by no mcans adapted to the exigencies of modern warfare; much stress is therefore laid on the good organization of the torpedo flotilla. The navy consists of 358 vessels, of 196,575 tons, carrying 24,500 men and 671 guns. Only 40 of these are armoured ships, the remainder being unarmoured frigates, corvettes, and cruisers, or torpedo boats (119), while a great number are mere transports and small craft. The extensive frontier is defended by many fortresses, chiefly on the west. Poland to the west of the Vistula remains quite unprotected, fortifications being only now in course of construction in the south-west; but the Vistula is defended by the first-class fortresses of Modlin (Novogeorgievsk), Warsaw, and Ivangorod, with BrestLitovsk in the rear. For protecting this line in rear new fortifications are being erected. The space between Poland and the Düna is protected only by the citadel of Vilna and the marshes of the Pripet. The second line of fortresses has been erected on the Düna and Dnieper, Riga, Dünaburg, Vitebsk, Bobruisk, and Kieff. The south-western frontier is under the protection of the advanced works of Bendery and Akerman, while the Black Sea coast is defended by Kinburn and Otchakoff at the entrances of the Dnieper and the Bug, Sebastopol in the Crimea, batteries at Odessa and Nikolaieff, and a series of minor fortifications. Formidable defensive works have been erected on the Baltic at Dünamünde, Reval, Narva, Cronstadt, Wiborg, Frederikshamn, Rohtensalm, Sveaborg, Hangöudd, and in the Aland Islands. A great number of minor forts are scattered throughout Caucasia, Transcaucasia, and Turkestan; but the Pacific coast has only earth-works at Vladivostok and Nikolaievsk.

1 Unless metallic or silver roubles are expressly mentioned, the rouble is to be taken throughout the present article as the paper rouble, the recent average value of which has been 2s. sterling. The metallic rouble (277-71 grains of pure silver) is equivalent to 38.046 pence sterling; but the paper rouble has gradually declined from 94.5 per cent. of its nominal value in 1861-65 to 60 per cent, in 1882 (see below, p.86).

2 Sbornik Svedeniy on European Russia; Brzeski, State Debts of Russia, 1884,

PART II.-EUROPEAN RUSSIA-GEOGRAPHY.

The administrative boundaries of European Russia, apart from Bound. Finland and Poland, broadly coincide on the whole with the aries. natural limits of the East-European plains, where they suddenly take, eastward of the Baltic Sea, a great extension towards the north. In the north it is bounded by the Arctic Ocean; the islands of Nova Zembla, Kolgueff, and Vaigatch also belong to it, but the Kara Sea is reckoned to Siberia. To the east it has the Asiatic dominions of the empire, Siberia and the Kirghiz Steppe, from both of which it is separated by the Ural Mountains, the Ural river, and the Caspian-the administrative boundary, however, partly extending into Asia on the Siberian slope of the Urals. To the south it has the Black Sea and Caucasia, being separated from the latter by the double valley of the two Manytches-a channel which in Post-Pliocene times connected the Sea of Azotf with the Caspian. The western boundary is purely conventional: it crosses first the peninsula of Kola from the Varanger Fiord to the northern extremity of the Gulf of Bothnia, making an arbitrary deflexion towards the west; thence it runs to the Kurische Haff in the southern Baltic, and thence to the mouth of the Danube, taking a great circular sweep to the west to embrace Poland, and separating Russia from Prussia, Austrian Galicia, and Roumania. Of this immense frontier line less than one-half is bordered by seas-nearly all of them inland seas. For it is a special feature of Russia-a feature which has impressed a special character on its history-that she has no free outlet to the high seas except on the ice-bound shores of the Arctic Ocean. Even the White Sea is merely a ramified gulf of that ocean. Another warmer gulf of the Arctic Ocean-the Varanger Fiord-separated from Russia by the uninhabitable plateaus of the peninsula of Kola, has been abandoned to Norway. The deep indentations of the Gulf of Bothnia and Finland wash the shores of Finnish territory, and it is only at the very head of the latter gulf that the Russians happen to have taken a firm foothold by erecting their capital on the marshes at the mouth of the Neva. The Gulf of Riga and the south-eastern Baltic belong also to territory which is not inhabited by Slavonians, but by Finnish stems, and by Germans. It is only very recently, within the last hundred years, that the Russians definitively took possession of the northern shores of the Black Sca and the Sea of Azoff. The eastern coast of the Black Sea belongs properly to Transcaucasia, a great chain of mountains separating it from Russia. But even this sea is an inland one, the only outlet of which, the Bosphorus, is in foreign hands, while the Caspian is but an immense shallow lake, bordered mostly by deserts, and possessing more importance as a link between Russia and her colonies than as a channel for intercourse with other countries.

The great territory occupied by European Russia-1600 miles in Configu length from north to south, and nearly as much from west to east ration. is on the whole a broad elevated plain, ranging between 500 and 900 feet above sea-level, deeply cut into by river-valleys, and bounded on all sides by broad hilly swellings or mountains:-the lake plateaus of Finland and the Maanselkä heights in the northwest; the Baltic coast-ridge and spurs of the Carpathians in the west, with a broad depression between the two, occupied by Poland; the Crimean and Caucasian mountains in the south; and the broad but moderately high swelling of the Ural Mountains in the east.

From a central plateau which comprises Tver, Moscow, Smolensk, and Kursk, and projects eastwards towards Samara, attaining an average height of 800 to 900 feet above the sea, the surface gently slopes in all directions to a level of from 300 to 500 feet. Then it again gently rises as it approaches the hilly tracts enclosing the great plain. This central swelling may be considered a continuation towards the east-north-east of the great line of upheavals of western Europe; the heights of Finland would then appear as continuations of the Scanian plateaus, and the northern mountains of Finland as continuations of the Kjölen, while the other great line of upheaval of the old continent, which runs north-west and south-cast, would be represented in Russia by the Caucasus in the south and the Timan ridge of the Petchora basin in the north.

The hilly aspects of several parts of the central plateau are not due to foldings of the strata, which for the most part appear to be horizontal, but chiefly to the excavating action of rivers, whose valleys are deeply dug out in the plateau, especially on its borders. The round flattened summits of tho Valdai plateau do not rise above 1100 feet, and they present the appearance of mountains only in consequence of the depth of the valleys-the levels of the rivers which flow towards the depression of Lake Peipus being only from 200 to 250 feet above the sea. The case is similar with the plateaus of Livonia, "Wendish Switzerland," and Kovno, which do not exceed 1000 feet at their highest points; so also with the eastern spurs of tho Baltic coast-ridge between Grodno and Minsk. The same elevation is reached by a very few flat summits of the plateau about Kursk, and farther east on the Volga about Kamyshin, where the valleys are excavated in the plateau to a depth of from 800 to 900 feet, giving quite a hilly aspect to the country. It is.only in the south-west, where spurs

of the Carpathians enter Volhynia, Podolia, and Bessarabia, that ridges reaching 1100 feet are met with, intersected by deep ravines. The depressions on the borders of the central plateau thus acquire a greater importance than the small differences in its height. Such is the broad depression of the middle Volga and lower Kama, bounded on the north by the faint swelling of the Uvaty, which is the watershed between the Arctic Ocean and the Volga basin. Another broad depression, from 250 to 500 feet above the sea, still filled by Lakes Peipus, Ladoga, Onega, Bieto-ozero, Łatche, Vozhe, and many thousands of smaller ones, borders the central plateau on the north, and follows the same east-north-east direction. Only a few low swellings penetrate into it from the north-west, about Lake Onega, and reach 900 feet, while in the north-east it is enclosed by the high Timanskiy ridge (1000 feet). A third depression of a similar character, occupied by the Pripet and the middle Dnieper, extends to the west of the central plateau of Russia, and penetrates into Poland. The immense lacustrine basin is now broken up into numberless ponds, lakes, and extensive marshes (see MINSK). It is bounded on the south by the broad plateaus spreading east of the Carpathians. South of 50° N. lat. the central plateau gently slopes towards the south, and we find there a fourth depression spreading west and east through Poltava and Kharkoff, but still reaching in its higher parts 500 to 700 feet. It is separated from the Black Sea by a gentle swelling which may be traced from Kremenetz to the lower Don, and perhaps farther south-east. This low swelling includes the Donetz coal-mieasures and the middle granitic ridges which cause the rapids of the Dnieper. Finally a fifth immense depression, which descends below the level of the ocean, extends for more than 200 miles to the north of the Caspian, comprising the lower Volga and the Ural and Emba rivers, and establishing a link between Russia and the Aral-Caspian region. The depression is continued farther north by plains below 300 feet which join the depression of the middle Volga, and extend as far as the mouth of the Oka.

The Ural Mountains present the aspect of a broad swelling whose strata no longer exhibit the horizontality we see in Russia, and moreover are deeply cut into by rivers. It is connected in the west with broad plateaus joining those of central Russia, but its orographical relations to other upheavals must be more closely studied before they can be definitely pronounced on.

The rhomboidal peninsula of the Crimea, connected by only a narrow isthmus with the continent, is occupied by a dry plateau gently sloping north and east, and bordered in the south-east by the Yaita Mountains, the summits of which range between 4000 and 5113 feet (see CRIMEA and TAURIDA).

Owing to the orographical structure of the East-European plains, which has just been described, the river-system has attained a very high development. Taking their origin from a series of great lacustrine basins scattered over the surface of the plateaus and differing slightly in elevation, the Russian rivers describe immense curves before reaching the sea, and flow with a very gentle gradient, receiving numerous large tributaries, which collect their waters from vast areas. Thus the Volga, the Dnieper, and the Don attain respectively a length of 2110, 1330, and 1125 miles, and their basins cover 645,000, 244,600, and about 115,000 square miles respectively. Moreover the chief rivers of Russia-the Volga, the Duna, the Dnieper, and even the Lovat and the Oka-take their rise in the north-western part of the central plateau, so close to one another that they may be said to radiate from the same marshes. The sources of the Don are ramified among the tribu taries of the Oka, while the upper tributaries of the Kamna join those of the Dwina and Petchora. In consequence of this, the rivers of Russia have been from remote antiquity the true channels of trade and migration, and have contributed much more to the elaboration of the national unity than any political institutions. Boats could be conveyed over flat and easy portages, from one river. basin to another, and these portages were subsequently transfornied with a relatively small amount of labour into navigable canals, and even at the present day these canals have more importance for the traffic of the country than most railways. By their means the plains of the central plateau-the very heart of Russia, whose natural outlet was the Caspian-were brought into water-communication with the Baltic, and the Volga basin connected with the Gulf of Finland. The White Sea has also been brought into connexion with the central Volga basin, while the sister-river of the Volga -the Kama-became the main artery of communication with Siberia.

It must be observed, however, that, though ranking before the rivers of western Europe in respect of length, the rivers of Russia are far behind as regards the amount of water discharged. They freeze in winter and dry up in summer, and most of them are navigable only during the spring-floods; even the great Volga becomes so shallow during the hot season that only light boats can pass its shoals. Russia has a very large number of lakes. The aggregate area of the largest ones is stated at 25,800 square miles.

The following is a descriptive list of the principal rivers of European Russia.

A. Arctic Ocean Basin.—(1) The Petchora (1025 miles) rises in the

northern Urals, and enters the ocean by a large estuary at the Gulf of Petchora. Its basin, thinly peopled and available only for cattlebreeding and for hunting, is quite isolated from Russia by the Timan ridge. The river is navigable for 770 miles; grain and a variety of goods conveyed from the upper Kama are floated down, while furs, fish, and other products of the sea are shipped up the river to be transported to Tcherdyn on the Kania. (2) The Kara (139 miles) enters the Kara Sea. (3) The Mezeň (510 miles) enters the Bay of Mezen; it is navigable for 450 miles, and is the channel of a considerable export of timber. (4) The northern Dwina, or Dvina (950 miles), with a basin of about 150,000 square miles, is formed by the union of two great rivers, the Yug (270 miles) and the Sukhona (330 miles). The Sukhona has its origin in Lake Kubenskoye, in north-west Vologda, and flows rapidly southwards and eastwards, having a great number of rapids. It is navigable throughout its length, and, as Lake Kubenskoye communicates by the Alexander of Würtemberg Canal with Lake Bietoye, it is connected with the Caspian and Baltic. The Vytchegda (685 miles), which flows west-south-west to join the Sukhona, through a woody region, thinly peopled, is navigable for 500 miles and in its upper portion is connected by a canal with the upper Kama. The Dwina flows with a very slight gradient through a broad valley, receiving many tributaries, and reaches the White Sea at Archangel by a number of branches. Notwithstanding serious obstacles offered by shallows, corn, fish, salt, and timber are largely shipped to and from Archangel. (5) The Onega (245 miles) rises in Lake Latche in the south of Otonetz, and flows into Onega Bay; it has rapids; timber is floated down in spring, and fishing and some navigation are carried on in the lower portion.

B. Baltic Basin.-(6) The Neva (46 miles) flows from Lake Ladoga into the Gulf of Finland (see ST PETERSBURG). (7) The Volkhoff (135 miles), discharging into Lake Ladoga (see LADOGA), and forming part of the Vyshnevolotsk system of canals, is an important channel for navigation; it flows from Lake Ilmen (367 square miles), which receives the Msta (250 miles), conuected with the Volga, the Lovat (310 miles), and many smaller tributaries. (8) The Svir (135 miles), also discharging into Lake Ladoga, flows from Lake Onega (4925 square miles), aud, being part of the Mariinsk canal system, is of great importance for navigation (see VOLGA). (9) The Narova (46 miles) flows out of Lake Peipus into the Gulf of Finland at Narva; it has remarkable rapids, notwithstanding which an active navigation is carried on by means of its waters, Lake Peipus, or Tchudskoye (136 square miles), receives -(10) the Velikaya (210 miles), a channel of traffic with southern Russia from a remote antiquity, but now navigable only in its lower portion, and (11) the Embach (83 miles), navigated by steamers to Dorpat. (12) The Düna, or West Dwina (577 miles), with a basin area of about 75,000 square miles,. rises in the Ostashkoff district of Tver, and falls into the sea below Riga, after having described a great curve to the south. It is shallow above the rapids of Jacobstadt, but navigation is carried on as far as Vitebsk,-corn, timber for shipbuilding, potash, flax, &c., being the principal shipments of its navigable tributaries (the Obsha, Ulla, and Kasplya); the Ulla is connected by the Berezina canals with the Dnieper. (13) The Niemen (Meinel), with a course of 470 miles in Russia, rises in the north of Minsk, leaves Russia at Yurburg, and enters the Kurische Haff; rafts are floated upon it almost from its sources, and steamers ply as far as to Kovno; the export of corn and timber to Prussia, and import of fish, grocery, and manufactured ware are consider. able; it is connected by the Oginski Canal with the Dnieper. The chief tributaries are the Viliya and the Shara. For (14) the Vistula, with the Bug and Narew, see POLAND.

3. Black Sea Basin.-(15) The Pruth (505 miles) rises in Austrian Bukovina, and separates Russia from Roumania; it enters (16) the Danube, which flows along the Russian frontier for 100 miles below Reni, touching it with its Kilia branch. (17) The Dniester (530 miles within Russia and about 330 miles in Austria) rises in Galicia. Light boats and rafts are floated at all points, and steamers ply on its lower portion; its estuary has important fisheries. (18) The Dnieper (1330 miles), with a basin of about 245,000 square miles, with tributaries, waters thirteen governments, of which the aggregate population numbers about 15,000,000. It also originates in the north-western parts of the central plateau, in the same marshy lakes which give rise to the Volga and Düna. It flows west, south, south-east, and south-west, and enters a bay in the north-western part of the Black Sea. In the middle navigable part of its course, from Dorogobuzh to Ekatorinoslaff, it is an active channel for traffic. It receives several large tributaries on the right, the Berezina (285 miles), connected with the Düna, and the Pripet (400 miles), both most important for navigation, -as well as several smaller tributaries on which rafts are floated; on the left the Sozh (330 miles), the Desna (590 miles), one of the most important rivers of Russia, navigated by steamers as far as Bryansk, the Suta (252 miles), the Psiot (415 miles), and the Vorskła (268 miles). Below Ekaterinoslaff the Dnieper flows for 46 miles through a series of thirteen rapids. At Kherson it enters its long (40 miles) but XXI. LO

shallow estuary, which receives the West Bug (450 miles) and the Ingut (220 miles). The traffic of the Dnieper and its tributaries reached in 1882 an aggregate of 12.9 million cwts. shipped and 67 discharged, the principal items being corn, salt, and timber. (19) The Don (1125 miles), with a basin of about 120,000 square miles, and navigable for 880 miles, rises in south-eastern Tula and enters the Sea of Azoff at Rostoff by thirty mouths, after describing a great curve to the east at Tsaritsyn, approaching the Volga, with which it is connected by a railway (40 miles). Its navigation is of great importance (5.4 million cwts. shipped, and 5.1 discharged), es .cially for goods brought from the Volga, and its fisheries are extensive. The chief tributaries are the Sosna (175 miles) and North Donetz (615 miles) on the right, and the Voronezh (305 miles), Khoper (565 miles), Medvyeditsa (410 miles), and Manytch (295 miles), on the left. (20) The Ylya (192 miles), (21) the Kuban (510 miles), and (22) the Rion belong to Caucasia. D. The Caspian Basin.-(23) The Volga, the chief river of Russia, has a length of 2110 miles, and its basin, about 648.000 square miles in area, contains a population of more than 40,000,000. It is connected with the Baltic by three systems of canals (see VOLGA). (24) The Great and 'the Little Uzeň no longer reach the Caspian but lose themselves in the Babinskoye Lakes. (25) The Ural (1475 miles), in its lower part, constitutes the frontier between European Russia and the Kirghiz Steppe; it receives the Sakınara on the right and the Ilck on the left. (26) The East Manytch (175 miles) is on the Caucasian boundary. (27) The Kuma (405 miles), (28) the Terek (360 miles), and (29) the Kura (about 650 miles), with the Arax (about 650 miles), which receives the waters of Lake Goktcha, belong to Caucasia.1

Almost every geological formation, from the oldest up to the most recent, is met with in Russia; but, as they are almost horizontal, they for the most part cover one another over immense spaces, so that the lower ones appear only at the bottom of the deeper valleys, and the oldest are seen only on the borders of the great Russian plain.

At the beginning of the Paleozoic period only a very few portions of what is now Russia-Finland, namely, and parts of Olonetzrose above the surface of the sea; but, as the result of a gradual upheaval continued through Palæozoic times, it is supposed that at the end of this epoch Russia was a continent not greatly differing from the present one. In Mesozoic times the sea began again to invade it, but, while in the preceding period the oscillations resolved themselves into a gradual upheaval extending from west to east, in Mesozoic times the upheaval went on from north-west to south-east. The Mesozoic sea, however, did not extend beyond what is now central Russia, and did not cover the "Devonian plateau" of western Russia, which remained a continent from the Carboniferous epoch. A gradual rising of the continent followed, and was continued through Neozoic times, with perhaps a limited subsidence in the Post-Glacial period, when the actual seas extended their narrow gulfs up the valleys now occupied by the great rivers. During the first part of the Glacial period, Russia seems to have been covered by an immense ice-sheet, which extended also over central Germany, and of which the eastern limits cannot yet be determined.

only in north-western Russia (Esthonia, Livonia, St Petersburg, and on the Volkhoff), where all European subdivisions of the system have been found, in the Timan ridge, on the western slope of the Urals, in the Pai-kho ridge, and in the islands of the Arctic Ocean. In Poland it is met with in the Kielce mountains, and in Podolia in the deeper ravines.

The Devonian dolomites, limestones, and red sandstones cover immense tracts and appear on the surface over a much wider area. From Esthonia these rocks extend north-east to Lake Onega, and south-east to Moghileff; they form the central plateau, as also the slopes of the Urals and the Petchora region. In north-western and middle Russia they contain a special fauna, and it appears that the Lower Devonian series of western Europe, represented in Poland and in the Urals, is missing in north-western and central Russia, where only the Middle and Upper Devonian divisions are found.

Carboniferous deposits cover nearly all castern Russia, their west boundary being a line drawn from Archangel to the upper Dnieper, thence to the upper Don, and south to the mouth of the last-named river, with a long narrow gulf extending west to encircle the plateau of the Donetz. They are visible, however, only on the western borders of this region, being covered towards the east by thick Permian and Triassic strata. Russia has three large coal-bearing regions—the Moscow basin, the Donetz region, and the Urals. In the Valdai plateau there are only a few beds of mediocre coal. In the Moscow basin, which was à broad gulf of the Carboniferous sea, coal appears as isolated inconstant seams amidst littoral deposits, the formation of which was favoured by frequent minor subsidences of the sea-coast. The Donetz coal-ineasures, containing abundant remains of a rich land-flora, cover nearly 16,000 square miles, and comprise a valuable stock of excellent anthracite and coal, together with iron-mines. Several smaller coal-fields on the slopes of the Urals and on the Timan ridge may be added to the above. The Polish coal-fields belong to another Carboniferous area of deposit, which extended over Silesia..

The Permian limestones and marls occupy a strip in eastern Russia of much less extent than that assigned to them on geological maps a few years ago. The variegated marls of eastern Russia, rich in salt-springs, but very poor in fossils, are now held by most Russian geologists to be Triassic. Indisputably Triassic deposits have been found only in the two Bogdo niountains in the Kirghiz Steppe (Campiler-Schichten) and in south-western Poland.

During the Jurassic period the sea began again to invade Russia from south-east and north-west. The limits of the Russian Jurassic system may be represented by a line drawn from the double valley of the Sukhona and Vytchegda to that of the upper Volga, and thence to Kieff, with a wide gulf penetrating towards the northwest. Within this space three depressions, all running south-west to north-east, are filled up with Upper Jurassic deposits. They are much denuded in the higher parts of this region, and appear but as isolated islands in central Russia. In the south-east all the older subdivisions are represented, the deposits having the characters of a deep-sca deposit in the Aral-Caspian region aud on the Caucasus.

The Cretaceous deposits-sands, loose sandstones, marls, and white chalk-cover the region south of a line drawn from the Niemen to the upper Oka and Don, and thence north-east to Simbirsk, with the exception of the Dnieper and Don ridge, the Yaita Mountains, and the upper Caucasus. They are rich in grind. ing stone, and especially in secondary layers of phosphorites.

The Silurian system is widely developed, and it is most probable that, with the exception of the Archæan continents of Finland and the Urals, the Silurian sea covered the whole of Russia. Being concealed by more recont deposits, Silurian rocks appear on the surface

1 Bibliography.-The lengths of the rivers of European Russia as ascertained by accurate measurements are given by Tillo, in Izvestia of Geogr. Soc., 1883. See also Stuckenberg, Hydr. des R. Reichs; Somenoff, Geogr. Statist. Dictionary (the most reliable source for all the geography of Russia). Strelbitzky, Superficies de l'Europe; H. Wagner, "Studien im Geb. d. Arcal-statistik," in the Stat. Monatsschrift, vill.; official Svod Materialoff, with regard to Russian rivers, 1876; Statistical Sbornik of the Min. of Communications, vol. x. (freezing of Russian rivers, and navigation). Besides the military statistical descriptions of separate governments, a great variety of. monographs dealing with separate rivers and basins are also available; e.g., Sidoroff, The Pelchora Region, and North Russia; Helmersen, Olonetzer Bergrevier; Turbin, The Dnieper; Prasolenko, "The Dniester," in Engin. Journ., 1881; Danilevsky, "Kuban," in Mem. Geogr. Soc., 1.; Baer, Caspische Studien; Ragozin, Volga; Peretyntkovitch, Volga; Mikhailoff, Kama; &c. An oro-hydrographical map of Russia in four sheets was published in 1878; see also Tillo, Orogr. Map of Russia; the ordinance maps of Russia; and Tillo, "Magnetical Maps of Russin," in Izv. of Geogr. Soc., 1884 and 1885.

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sea.

The thick Quaternary, or Post-Pliocene, deposits which cover nearly all Russia were for a long time a puzzle to geologists. They consist of a boulder clay in the north and of loess in the south. The former presents an intimato mixture of boulders brought from Finland and Olonetz (with an addition of local boulders) with small gravel, coarse sand, and the finest glacial mud,-the whole bearing no trace of ever having been washed up and sorted by water in motion, except in subordinate layers of glacial sand and gravel; the size of the boulders decreases on the whole from north to south, and the boulder clay, especially in northern and central Russia, often takes the shape of ridges parallel to the direction of th

·

The deposits of the Post-Glacial period are represented throughout Russia, Poland, and Finland, as also throughout Siberia and central Asia, by very thick lacustrine deposits, which show that, after the melting of the ice-sheet, the country was covered with immense lakes, connected by broad channels (the fjärden of the Swedes), which later on gave rise to the actual rivers. On the outskirts of the lacustrine region, closely resembling the area of the actual continent, traces of marine deposits, not higher than 200 or perhaps even 150 feet above present sea-level, are found alike on the Arctic Sea and on the Baltic and Black Sea coasts. A deep gulf of the Arctic Sea advanced up the valley of the Dwina; and the Caspian, connected by the Manytch with the Black Sea, and by the Uzboy valley with Lake Aral, penetrated north up the Volga valley, as far as its Samara bend. Unmistakable traces show that, while during the Glacial period Russia had an arctic flora and fauna, the climate of the Lacustrine period was more genial than it is now, and a dense human population at that time peopled the shores of the numberless lakes.

The Lacustrine period has not yet reached its close in Russia. Finland and the north-west hilly plateaus are still in the same geological phase, and are dotted with numberless lakes and ponds, while the rivers continue to dig out their yet undetermined channels. But the great lakes which covered the country during the Lacustrine period have disappeared, leaving behind them immense marshes like those of the Pripet and in the north-east. The disappearance of what still remains of them is accelerated not only by the general decrease of moisture, but also by the gradual upheaval of northern Russia, which is going on from Esthonia and Finland to the Kola peninsula and Nova Zembla, at an average rate of about two feet per century. This upheaval,-the consequences of which have been felt even within the historic period, by the drainage of the formerly impracticable marshes of Novgorod and at the head of the Gulf of Finland, -together with the destruction of forests, which must be considered, however, as a quite secondary and subordinate cause, contributes towards a decrease of precipitation over Russia and towards increased shallowness of her rivers. At the same time, as the gradients of the rivers are gradually increasing on account of the upheaval of the continent, the rivers dig their channels deeper and deeper. Consequently central and especially southern Russia. witness the formation of numerous miniature cañone, or ovraghi (deep ravines), the summits of which rapidly advance and ramify in the loose surface deposits. As for the southern steppes, .their desiccation, the consequence of the above causes, is in rapid progress.1

The soil of Russia depends chiefly on the distribution of the boulder-clay and loess coverings described above, on the progress made by the rivers in the excavation of their valleys, and on the moistness of climate. Vast areas in Russia are quite unfit for cultivation, 27 per cent. of the aggregate surface of European Russia (apart from Poland and Finland) being occupied by lakes, marshes, sands, &c., 38 per cent. by forests, 14 per cent. by prairies, and only 21 per cent. being under culture. The distribution of all these is, however, very unequal, and the five following subdivisions may be established :-(1) the tundras; (2) the forest region; (3) the middle region, comprising the surface available for agriculture and partly covered with forests; (4) the blackearth (tchernoziom) region; and (5) the Steppes. Of these the black-earth region,-about 150,000,000 acres,-which reaches from the Carpathians to the Urals, extending to the Pinsk marshes and 1 Bibliography.-Memoirs, Izvestia, and Geological Maps of the Committee for the Geological Survey of Russia; Memoirs and Sborniks of the Mineralogical Society, of the Academy of Science, and of the Societies of Naturalists at the Universities; Mining Journal; Murchison's Geology of Russia; Helmersen's and Möller's Geological Maps of Russia and the Urals; Inostrantseff in Appendix to Russian translation of Reclus's Géogr. Univ., and Manual of Geology (Russian).

the upper Oka in the north, is the most important. It is covered with a thick sheet of black earth, a kind of locss, mixed with 5 to 15 per cent. of humus, due to the decomposition of an herbaceous vegetation, which developed richly during the Lacustrine period on a continent relatively dry even at that epoch. On the three-fields system corn has been grown upon it for fifty to seventy consecutive years without manure. Isolated black-earth islands, less fertile of course, occur also in Courland and Kovno, in the Oka, Volga, and Kama depression, on the slopes of the Urals, and in a few patches in the north. Towards the Black Sea coast its thickness diminishes, and it disappears in the valleys. In the extensive region covered with boulder-clay the black earth appears only in isolated places, and the soil consists for the most part of a sandy clay, containing a much smaller admixture of humus. There culture is possible only with the aid of a considerable quantity of manure. Drainage finding no outlet through the thick clay covering, the soil of the forest region is often covered with extensive marshes, and the forests themselves are often mere thickets spreadthe west, and the admixture of boulders with the clay in the north-west renders agriculture increasingly difficult. On the Arctic coast the forests disappear, giving place to the tundras. Finally, in the south-east, towards the Caspian, on the slopes of the southern Urals and the Obshchiy Syrt, as also in the interior of the Crimea, and in several parts of Bessarabia, there are large tracts of real desert, covered with coarse sand and devoid of vegetation." Notwithstanding the fact that Russia extends from north to south through 26 degrees of latitude, the climate of its different Climate portions, apart from the Crimea and the Caucasus, presents a striking uniformity. The aerial currents-cyclones, anti-cyclones, and dry south-east winds-extend over wide surfaces and cross the flat plains freely. Everywhere we find a cold winter and a hot summer, both varying in their duration, but differing relatively little in the extremes of temperature recorded. From Tablo III. (page 76) it will be seen that there is no place in Russia, Archangel and Astrakhan included, where the thermometer does not rise in summer nearly to 86° Fahr. and descend in winter to -13° and -22°. It is only on the Black Sea coast that we find the absolute range of temperature reduced to 108°, while in tho remainder of Russia it reaches 126° to 144°, the oscillations being between-22° to -31°, occasionally - 54°, and 86° to 104°, occasionally, 109°. Everywhere the rainfall is small: if Finland and Poland on the one hand and Caucasus with the Caspian depression on the other be excluded, the average yearly rainfall varies between the limits of 16 and 28 inches. Everywhere, too, we find that the maximum rainfall does not take place in winter (as in western Europe) but in summer, and that the months of advanced spring are warmer than the corresponding months of autumn.

Though thus exhibiting all the distinctive features of a continental climate, Russia is not altogether exempt from the moderating influence of the ocean. The Atlantic cyclones also reach the Russian plains, mitigating to some extent the cold of the winter, and in summer bringing with them their moist winds and thunderstorms; their influence is chiefly felt in western Russia, but extends also towards and beyond the Urals. They thus check the extension and limit the duration of the cold anticyclones.

Throughout Russia the winter is of long continuance. The last days of frost are experienced for the most part in April, but also in May to the north of 55°. The spring is exceptionally beautiful in central Russia; late as it usually is, it sets in with vigour, and vegetation develops with a rapidity which gives to this season in Russia a special charm, unknown in warmer climates; the rapid melting of snow at the same time raises the rivers, and renders a great many minor streams navigable for a few weeks. But a return of cold weather, injurious to vegetation, is observed throughout central and eastern Russia between May 18 and 24, so that it is only in June that warm weather sets in definitely, reaching its maximum in the first half of July (or of August on the Black Sea coast). The summer is much warmer than might be supposed; in south-eastern Russia it is much warmer than in the corresponding latitudes of France, and really hot weather is experienced everywhere. It does not, however, prevail for long, and in the first half of September the first frosts begin to be experienced on the middle Urals; they reach western and southern Russia in the first days of October, and are felt on the Caucasus about the middle of November. The temperature descends so rapidly that a month later, about October 10 on the middle Urals and November 15 throughout Russia, the thermometer ceases to rise above the freezing-point. The rivers rapidly freeze; towards November 20 all the streams of the White Sea basin are covered with ice, and so remain for an average of 167 days; those of the Baltic, Black Sea, and Caspian basins freeze later, but about December 20 nearly all the rivers of the

Bibliography.-Ruprecht, Geo.-Botanical Researches on the Tchernoziom; Dokutchaeff, Russian Tchernoziom, 1880; Id., Phys. Chem. Researches; Materials for Statistics of Russia, published by the Minister of Domains, v., 1871; Wasiltchikoff, "Tchernoziom and its Future," in Mem. Moscow Soc. of Agr., 1877.

country are highways for sledges. The Volga remains frozen for a period varying between 150 days in the north and 90 days at Astrakhan, the Don for 100 to 110 days, and the Dnieper for 83 to 122 days. On the Düna ice prevents navigation for 125 days, and even the Vistula at Warsaw remains frozen for 77 days. The lowest temperatures are experienced in January, in which month the average is as low as 20° to 5° Falır. throughout Russia; in the west only does it rise above 22°. On the whole, February and March continue to be cold, and their average temperatures rise above zero only on the Black Sea coast. Even at Kieff and Lugañ the average of March is below 30°, while in central Russia it is 25° to 22°, and as low as 20° and 16° at Samara and Orenburg.

Isotherms.-All Russia is comprised between the isotherms of 32° and 54°. On the whole, they are more remote from one another than even on the plains of North America, those of 46° to 32° being distributed over 20 degrees of latitude. They are, on the whole, inclined towards the south in eastern Russia; thus the isotherm of 39° runs from St Petersburg to Orenburg, and that of 35° from Torneå to Uralsk. The inflexion is still greater for the winter isotherms. Closely following one another, they run almost north and south; thus Odessa and Königsberg are situated on the same winter isotherm of 28°; so also St Petersburg, Orel, and the mouth of the Ural river (about 20°); Mezen and Ufa (9°). The summer isotherms cross the above nearly at right angles, so that Kieff and Ufa, Warsaw and Tobolsk, Riga and the upper Kama have the same average summer temperatures of 64°, 624°, and 61°.

Height Average Temperatures.

Winds, Moisture, Rainfall.-The.investigation of the cyclones and anticyclones in Russia cannot as yet be regarded as completed. It appears, however, that in January the cyclones mostly cross north-west Russia (north of 55° and west of 40° E. long.), following directions which vary between north-east and south-east. In July they are displaced towards the north, and cross the Gulf of Bothnia, while another series of cyclones crosses middle Russia, between 50° and 55° N. lat. The laws of the anticyclones are not yet established. The winds closely depend on the routes followed by both. Generally, however, it may be said that alike in January and in July west and south-west winds prevail in western Russia, while eastern ones are most common in south-eastern Russia; northern winds are most common on the Black Sea coast. The strength of the wind is greater, on the whole, than in the continental parts of western Europe, and it attains its maximum in winter. Terrible gales blow from October to March, especially on the southern steppes and on the tundras. Gales with snow (burans, myatels), lasting from two to three days, or northerly gales without snow, are especially dangerous to man and beast. The average relative moisture reaches 80 to 85 per cent. in the north, and only 70 to 81 per cent. in southern and eastern Russia. In the steppes it is only 60 per cent. during summer, and still less (57) at Astrakhan. The average amount of cloud reaches 73 to 75 per cent. on the White Sea and in Lithuania, 68 to 64 in central Russia, and only 59 to 53 in the south and south-east. The amount of rainfall is shown in the subjoined table (III.):—1

North Latitude.

above Sea in

Full Range of First Ther

Average Rainfall in Inches.

Last Frosts. Frosts.

The flora of Russia, which represents an intermediate link between those of Germany and Siberia, is strikingly uniform over a very large area. Though not poor at any given place, it appears so if the space occupied by Russia be taken into account, only 3300 species of phanerogams and ferns being known. Four great regions may be distinguished :-the Arctic, the Forest, the Steppe, and the Circum-Mediterranean.

The Arctic Region comprises the tundras of the Arctic littoral beyond the northern limit of forests, which last closely follows the coast-line, with bends towards the north in the river valleys (70° N. lat. in Finland, on the Arctic Circle about Archangel, 68° N. lat: on the Urals, 71° on West Siberia). The shortness of the summer, the deficiency of drainage, and the thickness of the layer of soil which is frozen through in winter are the elements which go to the making of the characteristic features of the tundras. Their flora is far nearer those of northern Siberia and North America than that of central Europe. Mosses and lichens cover them, as also the birch, the dwarf willow, and a variety of shrubs; but where the soil is drier, and humus has been able to accumulate, a variety of herbaceous flowering plants, some of which are familiar also in western Europe, make their appearance. Only from 275 to 280 phanerogams are found within this region.

The Forest Region of the Russian botanists occupies the greater part of the country, from the Arctic tundras to the Steppes, and it maintains over this immense surface a remarkable uniformity of character. M. Beketoff subdivides it into two portions-the forest region proper, and the "Ante-Steppe" (predstepie). The northern limit of the Ante-Steppe would be represented by a line drawn from the South Pruth through Zhitomir, Kursk, Tamboff, and Stavropol on Volgu to the eces of the Ural. But the

forest region proper itself presents a certain variety of aspect ir its northern and southern parts, and must in turn be again sub. divided into two parts-the coniferous region and that of the oak forests,-these being separated by a line drawn through Pskoff Kostroma, Kazañ, and Ufa. Of course, the oak occurs farther north than this, and conifer forests extend farthe south, advancing even to the border-region of the Steppes; but this line must still be considered as important. To the north of it we have dense forests, covering very large areas, and interrupted oftener by marshes than by meadows or cultivated fields. Vast and impenetrable forests, unpassable marshes and thickets, frequent lakes, swampy meadows, with cleared and dry spaces here and there occupied by villages, are the leading features of the region. Fishing and hunting are the important sources of livelihood. The characteristics of what may be described as the oak region, which comprises all central Russia, are totally different. The surface is undulatory; marshy meadow lands no longer exist on the flat watersheds, and only a few shelter themselves in the much deeper and broader river valleys. Forests are still numerous where not destroyed by man, but their character has changed. Conifers are rare, and the Scotch pine, which covers the sandy plains, has taken the place of the Abics; birch, oak, and other deciduous trees

1 Bibliography.-Memoirs of the Central Physical Observatory; Repertorium für Meteorologic and Meteorological Sbornik, published by the same body; Ves R., 1881; Woyelkoff, The Climates of the Globe, 1884 (Russ.), containing the best selovsky, Climate of Russia (Russian); Wild, Temperatur-Verhältnisse des Russ. general information about the climate of Russia; Klossovsky, Thunderstorms in Russia, 1885 (Russ.); Memoirs and Izvestia of the Geographical Society; many papers in the Memoirs and Bulletin of the Academy of Sciences, in the Trudy of the Scientific Societies at the Universities, in the Moscow Bulletin, &c.; Woyelkoff and Leist in Appendix to Russian translation of Élise Reclus's Geogr. Univ.; Woyelkoff, in Russkiy Kalendar and in Mem. Russ. Geogr. Soc., 1885.