RUSSIA. 



371 



of UM CriiJM hn an al*o almond* and pomegranate*. 

 cW^r UM^I <a b diMriato akng tb lowv eoarae of 

 o th. VolRB above tUrepU, and in the Crimea. The wino 

 lT 01 " *! ' inferior quality, bat the produce of the 

 " * I* 1 * <*"* d Dn* *". i* aid to bo hardly inferior 







are not muoh attended to. Potatoe*. Mveral kinds 



of cabbtgM, turnip*, and carrote however are extensively grown ; and 

 m eaeae placee omoombers, pumpkin*, and radishes. Melons, and 

 an Terr abundant in the hot and dry conn trie* 



MS* the *UppM, A*par*cn* grow* wild in the southern districts. 

 Hep* * found wild, bat they are aUo cultivated. Liquorice thrives 

 luxuriantly on the bank, of the Volga in the goTernmentof Astrakhan; 

 it i. taken to Astrakhan, whan the juioe i* expressed, and considerable 



, 



qoutitM* of it are exported. Soda is obtained from different kinds of 

 alaola that grow in the steppe*. 



Th torss** oMMtitnU on* of the principal sources of wealth to 

 Hnaua. and their produce, consisting of timber, fire-wood, tar, pitch, 

 sahi* pearl-asb. and potaah, is exported to a large amount. About 

 three-fourths of the countries between 65* N. lat. and the course of 

 the Volga a far east as it* great bend near Casan, are covered with 

 for****. In all these countries only pine, fir, larch, alder, and birch 

 are found, with a few lime-trees; ash-trees are rare. From these 



i* derived the greatest part of the produce of the forests 

 which goes to foreign market*. The central province* have hardly as 

 orach wood a* is required for fuel and for manufacturing purposes. 

 In MOM part* even fire-wood i* dear and scarce. West of the Dnieper 

 extensive forest* occur on the banks of the Niemen and in the swamps 

 of Pinak and Ratnor. They chiefly consist of pine- and fir-trees, but 

 birth- and lime-trees are also common, and in some parts these are the 

 prevalent kind*. South of the swamps of Pinsk and Ratnor there are 

 DOM forest* of beech, and this i* the only part of Russia where that 

 tree is abundant The great forest* to the east of the central pro- 

 vince* occupy a large part of the governments of Perm, Viatka, Casan, 

 Nhchnei-Novgorod, Pens*, and Saratov. They consist mostly of pine, 

 fir, larch, alder, and birch in Perm and Viatka; but in the other 

 government*, of oak*, lime-trees, elms, and ash. The southern pro- 

 vince* of Russia are quite without trees. The oak-tree is most common 

 between 58 and 64 N. lat Near the Ural Mountains it is not found 

 north of 57* N. lat., but farther west it extends to 69 N. lat., and a 

 few trees are even found in Finland north of 60 N. lat 



The domestic animals of England are found in Russia, with the 

 exception of rabbit*. Horses are very numerous, and of various 

 bleed*. Those in the northern provinces are rather small, but the 

 central and southern districts have large breeds. Those of the 

 Coasaks, Kalmuck*, and Kirghiz, which pasture in the steppes, and 

 become almost wild, are distinguished by their power of sustaining 

 the greatest fatigue with very scanty food. There are also a few wild 

 in the steppe*. Black cattle is abundant, as is evident from 

 f quantities of tallow and hide* which are exported, 

 domestic consumption of both articles is very great. 

 Sheep are (till more numerous ; and the breed has been improved by 

 eroasing with the Merino and Saxon sheep. In general however the 

 wool i* of an indifferent quality. During the winter sheep-skins form 

 the common dress of the peasantry. In the southern steppes there 

 an some peculiar breeds of sheep, among which the Kirghiz breed 

 with the large bushy tail is the most remarkable. Their wool, when 

 full grown, is abort and coarse, but the lambs have a fine and beautiful 

 fleece. Goat* an more numerous in Russia than in other countries of 

 Europe : the skin* an used for making morocco leather. Hogs are 

 generally reared, except in tho steppes : they are most numerous in 

 the countries where there are oak-forests, and in the western provinces, 

 from which a great number of hams and much bacon is sent to other 

 part* of the empire. The nomadic tribe* which wander about in the 

 tyuBj keep a great number of camel* : some rich proprietors have 

 mora than 1000 bead. In the government of Astrakhan buffaloes are 

 kept. Fowl, geeee, and duck* are abundant Reindeer are only kept 

 aorta of M* N. lat. 



Among the wild animal* of Riusia are the bison (Vnu), which still 

 dMi tit toe forest of Bialovin, near the source of the Narew; and in 

 toe northern foreete elk*, deer, hare*, and wild hog*, besrs, gluttons, 

 badger*, wolves, foxea, marten*, polecat*, weatels, ermines, otters, 

 gufmU, and marmot*. In the steppes then are wolves, foxes, and 

 wild bogs; also wild uses, saiga antelopes, konsaks, and the dipus 



Nearly all kind* of bird* which are met with in England occur in 

 Rovia, and also the caperoaUxie and pelican : the last however lives 

 only on the shores of the Black Sea and the Caspian. 



Rah i* rery plentiful in the rivers as well as in the White Sea and 

 Jong the coast* of the Arctic Sea, but it i* lesa abnndant in the 

 Baltic. The fl*b which are chiefly taken in the White Sea are had- 

 dock, cod, herrings, and the omul, a kind of salmon. In the Polar 

 Sea, e-peciaJly along the cout* of Nora Zembla, the whale, the walrus, 

 Barhal, soul, dolphin, whit* fish, and some other kind* are caught. 

 Tb* mort important fisheries In Rtnsia are those of the VoW the 

 Ural, and the Sea of Aof. [ATIIAHAH ; Axor.] The fish is sent 

 all p,rU of the empire, but i* not exported to any largo amount. 

 Isinglass and caviare are sent to foreign market*. 



Serpent* and lizards are common only iu the steppes. Swarms of 

 locust* occasionally infest the countries that border on the M 

 Among the noxious insects are scorpions, millipedes, tarantulas, and 

 tho scorpion-spider. Bees are found wild iu most of those provinces 

 which have large forests, but they are also reared in other parts of 

 the empire, especially by the Mordwi. Though the consuinpti 

 wax is very great in the churches, Russia Rtill exports some wax. 

 The honey collected in the districts where forests of lime-trees exist 

 is highly valued, and fetches a good price. The mulberry-tree thrives 

 well in the southern provinces, and the silk-worm also succeeds, but 

 the manufacturers of Moscow and other parts of tho empire obtain 

 their chief supply of raw silk from Persia. 



Otology and Mineralogy. The successive primaeval deposits extend 

 over European Russia in regular sequence, and in an unaltered state. 

 Hence, though the surface presents only a monotonous and undulating 

 surface, chiefly occupied by accumulations of mud, sand, and erratic 

 blocks, the framework of the country wherever it can be detected 

 exhibits a clear ascending series belonging to the Silurian period. 

 The oldest deposits have been only partially hardened since they 

 were accumulated at the bottom of the sea, and have been elevated in 

 low plateaus that have undergone no change or disruption. The 

 general order of the older strata has been singularly exempted from 

 all intrusion of every description of plutonic or volcanic rocks. The 

 old deposits consist of slightly coherent mud, marl, and sand, in 

 strata deviating but little from horizontally, and are proved to 

 belong to the same geological period as some of the hard slaty 

 mountains of North Wales. In the Ural chain where there are 

 numerous eruptive rocks (porphyry, greenstone, sienite, granite, and 

 serpentine), the soft primaeval strata so prevalent in other parts of 

 European Russia have been converted into metamorphous rocks, 

 crystalline schists, limestone, and quartz. 



In a large portion of the country, however, west of tho Ural chain, 

 comprising the greater part of the governments of Perm, Orenburg, 

 Casan, Nischnei-Novgorod, Yaroslav, Kostroma, Viatka, and Vologda, 

 ((instituting an area twice the size of France, the older sedimentary 

 strata are overlaid by widely diffused masses of Permian rocks which 

 contain fauna and flora essentially palaeozoic (the genera being the 

 same as those of the coal period, but the species with a few exceptions 

 different), and constitute the true termination to the long palaeozoic 

 period. These Permian deposits are of varied mineral aspect ; they 

 consist of grits, sandstones, marls, conglomerates, limestones, some- 

 times inclosing great masses of gypsum and salt, and are also much 

 impregnated with copper, and occasionally with sulphur. They are 

 flanked on the west, east, and north by the upper members of the 

 carboniferous rocks, but with little or no coal Limestones inter- 

 stratified with much gypsum prevail towards the base. In some 

 parts of the region salt springs occur rising, it is supposed, from 

 masses of rock-salt in older palaeozoic rocks ; but in the steppes 

 south of Orenburg, the mineral is subordinate to the true red Per- 

 mian deposits. Salt-beds range up to the foot of the older palieozoic 

 and crystalline rocks of the South Ural Mountains to the east of 

 Orenburg. 



These Permian strata as above hinted at contain many varieties in 

 their contents and relations. Along certain portions of the west 

 flank of the Ural chain they occur in almost apparent conformity to 

 the carboniferous rocks; all the strata, whether carboniferous or 

 Permian, have been raised up and thrown off sharply towards the 

 west At Sergiefsk and on the banks of the Sok in the basin of the 

 lower Volga, magnesian limestone and marl are surmounted by 

 gypsum, copper ore, and native sulphur, with sulphureous and 

 asphaltic springs in the middle masses, whilst other luarlstones and 

 white limestones form the summit. Near Kazan huge masses of 

 gypsum, rising high above the level of the Volga, are surmounted by 

 limestone cliffs, and the latter by red, green, and white marls. In 

 the central tracts, between the Ural Mountains and the Volga, the 

 limestone in gome tracts assumes a definite horizon, and is underlaid 

 by coarse grits ; it is repeated also at various levels in a succession of 

 beds interlaminated with sandstones, and yellow, white, and greenish 

 marls, occasionally containing plants and small seams of impure coal 

 the whole being surmounted by red grits and conglomerates with 

 copper-ore. 



In some of tho Polish governments the younger secondary and 

 tertiary deposits are so widely spread that tho palaeozoic rocks rise 

 only iu small patches to the surface. Around Kielce a nucleus of 

 Devonian rocks with much limestone, and charged with characteristic 

 fossils, is followed by carboniferous limestones and by thick-bedded 

 coal-seams, over a small district that extends into the coal tracts of 

 Silesia. In consequence of the high antiquity of the Silurian strata, 

 which prevails so widely in Russia, there is little or no coal. What 

 seams are known to exist are mere streaks, and of bad quality. The 

 only coal deposits of any importance are those of Kielce and the Donetz 

 coal-field, which lies between the Dnieper and the Don, about 100 

 miles from the Sea of Azof, in a rugged dislocated tract, where the 

 seams mostly of anthracite are thrown up at different high angles, so 

 as to be difficult to work. 



In southern Siberia there is a great extension of the younger 

 paUcozoic deposits, which extend also to the Altai' Mountains, whilst 

 in north-eastern Siberia such rocks have been traced even to the Sea 



