D N I 



2-3 



D N I 



Dixmude borious occupations, are performed by the females. 

 I They carry their children on their backs, wear tanned 

 Pck-per. hides round their waists, and adorn their necks and 

 arms with white shells and bends. The higher class of 

 females permit the nails on their left band to prow to a 

 great length ; and, in order to preserve them, they wear 

 upon their fingers cases of leather several inches long. 



The inhabitants of Dixan carry on a great trade in 

 slaves, which bring a very high price. East Long. 40 

 7' 30", North Lat 14 57' 55". See Bruce's Travels 

 in Abyssinia ; and Valentia's Travels, vol. ii. p. 506, &c. 

 () 



DIXMUDE, DIXMUDA, DICASMUTA, a town of 

 France, in the department of the Lys, is situated in a 

 fertile plain on the river Yperlie. It had formerly 

 four convents, and is celebrated for the excellent quali- 

 ty of its butter and cheese, which is obtained principally 

 from the territory of Fumes. It was once a strong 

 place. A fair is held here on the third Sunday of July, 

 which lasts eight days, and at which are sold cattle and 

 various articles of merchandise. Population 2521. Dis- 

 tance from Dunkirk 24 miles east, and from Furnes 

 and Nieuport nine miles north. (_;') 



DIZIER St. SANCTI DESIDERII FAXUM, is a town of 

 France, in the department of the Upper Marne. It is 

 situated on the right br.nk of the Marne, at the place 

 where this river becomes navigable. The fortifications 

 of this place have been greatly neglected. The road 

 between Vitry and St Dizier is reckoned the finest in 

 Europe. Between this town and Joinville, there was 

 cli-icovcm! in 1772, the ruins of a Roman station about 

 2<H) feet long, and I COO feet wide. There are several 

 iron mines nncl forges in the neighbourhood and the 

 nrinciprJ manufacture* are cast iron, linen cloth, hosiery, 

 hats, and leather. It carrier on al.-o a very considera- 

 ble trade in wood, particularly in that which is used in 

 the construction of ships : the depot is at St Di/ier, 

 where it is embarked on the Marne, and conducted to 

 Paris. A great number of ho.its are built here, and a 

 considerable trade is carried on in corn and iron. Po- 

 juil-ition .18' - 4. () 



DMF.l'EH, NiErEH, DANAPRTS, the Boryxtkencs 

 of the ancients, is one of the largest rivers in Europe, 

 and the chief river of ali the provinces adjacent to the 

 .". It ! ises in the government of Smolensk, near 

 the same place as the Volga and the Southern Dwina; 

 and after running southward? through Lithuania, the 

 country of the Xapirog Cossacks, and that of the Na- 

 gay Tartars, it mselurgei itself into the Euxine or 

 Black Sea, at Kinburn, near Oczakof. The Dnieper 

 is navigable t/om Smolensk, if not from Dorogobush ; 

 but its navigation is sadly obstructed by numerous Hats 

 or moving SMII'JS, common to all the rivers in the north 

 of Russia, and by numerous cataracts. From Kiof, 

 flown to Kremcntchuck, the navigation is greatly in- 

 commoded by t!it- flats in the middle of summer. Chan- 

 nel* of considerable depth exist near the shore on both 

 hide*, but trcw an? constantly -hit'ting during the floods; 

 and the only method of remedying this evil is to have 

 pilots stationed at p;n tii ul: r pikeM to sound the river, 

 and d.Y'.-ct tlic vessels into the right channels This has 

 already been done with grer.t e flirt in tin- river Svir. 



The cataracts of tin- Dnieper, formed by hue;'- blocks 

 of granite projecting into the river, are a still more 

 formidable obstacle to its navigation, as the harks can 

 get over them only at high water during the spring. 

 During the government of Piiteinkin, an attempt w.-is 

 made to clear the cataracts, but the work was stopped 

 by the war in 1787. Since the commencement trf the 



present century, the attention of the emperor has been Dnieper, 

 strongly directed to this subject. The Board of Inland ~~"Y~- "" 

 Navigation has begun to deepen a channel between 

 the cataracts, by means of temporary dikes through 

 which the barks may pass both up and down the river 

 in the very middle of summer. This plan, however, 

 being quite inapplicable to the great Nenasitez cataract, 

 they began to dig through a rocky shore a circuitous ca- 

 nal round it, provided with sluices. The clearing of 

 other three cataracts were begun, and eight remained to 

 be executed. These works were going on slowly in 

 1805 when Mr R. Corner visited that country ; and he 

 informs us, that a float of timber, which arrived while 

 he was at Odessa, had spent two years in coming down, 

 from the impediments of the cataracts. Below the ca- 

 taracts, the Dnieper resembles the Volga, and is inter- 

 sected with many islands and flats. The current, which 

 is not strong, admits of the use of oars for vessels go- 

 ing up, and of sails when there is very little wind. 

 The marshy nature of the shores has rendered it ne- 

 cessary, in some districts, to establish towing paths. 

 which will be of the greatest service in accelerating the 

 return of barks with salt, silk, cotton, and the other 

 products of the Levant, which are absolutely necessary 

 for the inland manufactories. The leman or estuary of 

 the Dnieper, is extremely hostile to the export trade. 

 It flows slowly into the Euxine, through several branches, 

 and forms numerous sand banks ; so that in summer, 

 when there is scarcely six feet of water, merchant ves- 

 sels are obliged to land 35 versts beyond its mouth, at 

 the Gubo'aya prislan, or deep wharf. Even this place 

 is very unfit for the purpose, as the road is sometimes 

 unnavigable from November to May ; and when the 

 dock-yard was at Cherson, it became necessary to use 

 camels for transporting the men of war over the sand 

 flats in the estuary. From these causes, Nicolaef, si- 

 tuated on the Bog, and the Ingul, was chosen for the 

 seat of the admiralty ; but being found inconvenient 

 for trade, on account of its distance from the Dnieper, 

 the port of Odessa was constructed on the bay of Had- 

 giby, which was particularly eligible on account of its 

 vicinity to Poland, Podolia, and Volhynia. Maga- 

 zines and storehouses have been erected for the goods 

 brought down the 1 >nieper, and also along the banks 

 of the Dniester, for the products of Galicia and Po- 

 dolia. 



About 300 vessels descend the Dnieper to Nicolaef 

 and Cherson, and vast floats of timber are brought 

 down for the admiralty. About CO boats laden with 

 salt ascend the Dnieper from Krementchuk to Smo- 

 lensk, and also several of its branches, to the wharfs 

 of Novogorod, Severskoy, Pirisk, and Borovit/.. This 

 salt is conveyed by means of oxen from the Crimea to 

 Krementchuk ; but when the cr.turacts are cleared, the 

 land carriage will be diminished to 1 '0 versts from the 

 Crimea to the wharf of Rereslasskoy on the Dnieper, 

 and the salt may be carried by water from tire salt pits 

 of Kinburn. 



Many of the streams which fall into the Dnieper are 

 navigable, or capable of being made so, excepting in 

 *< asuns when the parent river is itself unfit for navigation. 

 The principal of these arc fie Druzn, which is small and 

 unnavigable, joining the. Dnieper at Rogatchcf; the 

 Berct'tna, a pretty considerable river, by which masts 

 are floated .down to Borisof, and even to the wharf of 

 1'edoserskoy ; the Son fin, which is navigable in July for 

 500 versts, and supplies Kiof with timber; the Pripit, 

 which is the chief branch of the Dnieper, separating 

 Lithuania from Volhynia, and carrying down great 



