V LI EL AND. 



VOLUYN1A. 



iota 



u** UM manufacture of thread, wonted, linen, ami coarse 

 piiull*** for home UM, the government ha* important manufacture* 

 of HMD, cotton, leather, iron-ware*, glaaa, and crystal Tho export* 

 t^prfr. the product* just named, and paper, soap, poUuhes, fruit, 

 timber, fire-wood, *tone for building and uiilUtonr*, and lime. 



Vladtmtr, the capital, i* ciluated in the centre of the government, 

 ia W 17' N. lat, 40* 20' E. long., on a group of hills which rise above 

 fertile plain on the left bauk of the Kliazma, which flow* under the 

 walla. It i* on* of the oldest cities in Russia, and from 1157 to 1328 

 wa* the residence of the grand-duke* and the capital of Great Russia. 

 With the exception of it* numerou* churches and stone house* 

 Vladimir ha* few trace* of it* former greatneas ; there are no vestiges 

 of the palac* of the prince*, and the Golden Gate has nothing mogm- 

 ftocnt except it* name. The city i* (till huge, but ill built, and has 

 8 goto*, terminating the 6 principal street*. Of the 25 churches, tho 

 cathedrals of St. Mary and Demetrius are remarkable in the history 

 of Ruaia. Thee* are 2 convents, an ecclesiastical seminary, and 

 Mvenl crown building*. The bishop of Vladimir and Susdal has a 

 palace here. The inhabitant* manufacture silk veils and haudker- 

 chMfa. and have some tanneries and soap manufactories. 



Pmlari-/alttiot i* situated on the river Trubesch, where it empties 

 itarlf into Lake PleacbUchejew. It i* an old town with several 

 church** and convent", which are the only important structures in the 

 phrrc The population ia 4000, who manufacture linen, silks, and 

 woollen-cloth*. They have a profitable transit and commission trade. 



Murom, with 6500 inhabitant*, an ancient town, was once the capital 

 of the Mordwin*. and afterward* the residence of Russian princes ; it 

 ha* 3 convent*, 18 stone and 7 wooden churches, and several crown 

 building*. The inhabitant* have some manufactures and considerable 



VLIELAND. [HOLLAND.] 



VL1ESS1XGEN. [FBIESLAND.] 



VOQHE'RA, a province of Piedmont, in the administrative division 

 of Alessandria, is bounded N. by the Po, which divides it from the 

 province of Mortara and from the Austrian crownland of Lombardy ; 

 E. by the duchy of Parma and Piacenza; 8. by the provinces of 

 Tortona and Bobbio ; and W. by the province of Tortona. Its area is 

 808 square mile*, and it* population in 1848 was 101,695. It lies 

 mostly in the plain of the Po, but the southern part of it includes the 

 northern slope of the Ligurian Apennines, from which the Staffora 

 and other torrent* descend and cross the plain to join the Po. The 

 country produce* much silk. The head town, Voghera, originated in 

 a suburb of the ancient town of Ida, and this circumstance seems also 

 to have given origin to the name, which is a corruption of Vicut Irice. 

 Voghera has 11,000 inhabitants, who manufacture woollens and silks; 

 the only building in it worthy of notice is the collegiate church, which 

 is of good architecture. Voghera is in a plain on the Staffora (which 

 a* well as the town was in ancient times called Iria), at the intersection 

 of the high roads from Turin to Modena, and from Genoa to Milan 

 by Pavia. The town is begirt with walls. 



The other towns of the province are Stradtlla, with 000 inhabit- 

 ant*, situated on the high road from Voghera to Piaccuza, and near 

 the borders of the duchy of Parma ; Jlruni, or lironni, a post-town 

 on the same line of road, with 3000 inhabitants ; and Catteyyio, which 

 ha* 2500 inhabitant*. 



VOIGTLAND, or V GOTLAND, is the land formerly possessed by 

 the officer* called V'oigte (advocates) of the empire, the predecessors 

 of the present ' princes and count* of Reuss. Their country compre- 

 hended the present circle of Voigtland in the kingdom of Saxony, the 

 bailiwick of Weyda in the grand-duchy of Saxe-Wi iniar, the possessions 

 of the priuce* and count* of Reuss, the lordship of Hof (now belonging 

 to Bavaria), and the bailiwick of Rouueburg in the duchy of Saxe- 

 Alttuburg. The descendants of Henry the Elder, Voigt of Plauen, 

 aold or mortgaged various portions of these possessions ; and at length, 

 hi consequence of such a mortgage, the Elector Augustus of Saxony, 

 who in 1500 had acquired by purchase the bailiwick of Weyda, Arns- 

 haugk, and Ziegenriick, purchased in 1569 the lordships of Plauen, 

 VoigUberg, and Pausa. They were formed into two circles : that of 

 NeiuUdt, which was ceded to Pruseia by the. treaty between Prussia 

 and Saxony concluded at Presburg, May 18, 1815 ; and the circle of 

 VoigtUnd, which remained to Saxony, and forma the most western 

 part of that kingdom. This circle has an area of 556 square miles. 

 According to the nature of the country, it is divided into two por- 

 tion*, the Mountain and Forest Region, and the Land Region. The 

 fint i* the mountainpu* and thickly-wooded tract on both sides of 

 the Mulda next the circle of the Erzgobirge, which it greatly resem- 

 ble*. The climate i* cold and the toil stony; the only kind of 

 grain produced U oat*, and the only vegetable* are potatoes. In the 

 other portion, called the Land Region, the surface of the ground is 

 covered with a rich mould, the climate i* milder, and the weather 

 and temperature much lea* variable. The highest mountains are the 

 Schaeckenatein and the RammeUberg, on the frontiers of Bohemia : 

 the principal riven are the Elster, the Mulda, and the Golseh. In 

 the valley* mo*t agricultuial product* are successfully cultivated. 

 Flax U a very important crop. The circle has a very fine breed of 

 homed cattle and sheep. Game and fih abound, and pearls are found 

 in the EUter. One of the chief production* i* timber, of which largo 

 quantities are exported. The minerals are copper, iron, alum, lime, 



and slate. The chief occupation of the inhabitant* is the manufacture 

 of linen, cotton, woollen-cloth, and muslin. The chief town of tho 

 Voigtland is PLA ' 



VOIRON. [IsfcHii] 



VOLCHOW, or WOLCHOW, R1VK1S. [Novooonoo; RUSSIA.] 



VOLGA, culled by the Tartars Etlid, that is, ' the bountiful,' U the 

 longest river, and, with the exception of the Danube, has the largest 

 volume of water of any river in Europe ; and it* entire course is 

 within the Russian empire. It rises in 57 X. lat, on the frontier of 

 the governments of Twer and No vogorod, near the village of Wochina- 

 Werchowie, issuing from a small lake formed by several springs, and 

 it flows through the lakes of Oselok, Plara, and Volga, which it quits 

 about 90 miles above Twer. Near Ostuschkof it receives the Selicha- 

 rowka, which issues from Lake Seeliger, and attains the breadth of 

 150 feet; at Rshew-Vladimirow it becomes navigable for small boat*, 

 and at Twer, where it is 700 feet broad, for large barges. Having 

 traversed the government of Twer iu an easterly direction, it turns to 

 the north-east to Yaroslav, then south-eastwards to Kostroma and to 

 Nischui'i-Novgorod, where it receives the Oka; thence to Casan, where, 

 having been joined by the Kama, it becomes 1COO yards broad, and 

 having passed Simbirsk, Saratov, and Astrachau (where in time of 

 floods it is above 10 miles across), it divides into eight branches, 

 which inclose 70 islands, and discharges iUelf by 65 mouths into the 

 Caspian Sea. The rivers which join, it, with the exception of tho 

 Oka, before it reaches Casan, are of no great magnitude; but the 

 Kama, which joins it at Casau, after a course of 1000 miles, mokes a 

 vast accession to its waters. 



The Volga is of the utmost importance for the facility which it 

 affords to the trade of the interior of the empire, and also to its 

 foreign commerce; the Russian government having, by a judicious 

 system of canal navigation, so connected the various navigable river*, 

 that the Polar Sea communicates with the Caspian by a navigation of 

 4000 miles on the Dniua, the Volga, and canals. The entire length 

 of the Volga is above 2000 miles, and its total fall is ouly about U30 

 feet. It flows with a slow regular current uninterrupted by rapid or 

 cataract. It is stated that the volume of its waters is gradually 

 decreasing : at the beginning of the iSth century it had depth enough 

 for freights of 1600 tons; it does not now bear vessels of more than 

 1200 tons. 



The banks of the Volga are extremely fertile, even the yet unculti- 

 vated parts ; and there is no other part of Russia where so much oak 

 timber grows as in the vicinity of this river. The navigation of tho 

 Volga is much obstructed, in the dry season of the year, by .shallows 

 and islands ; but iu May and June the melting of the snow and ice 

 swells its waters, and often causes extensive inundations. At this 

 season its depth is so increased that large ships can pass over the 

 sand-bauks and low islands (which are then completely under water), 

 and descend it in safety from Twer to Astrachau. The Volga, especi- 

 ally from Astrachan to the Caspian, is more abundant in fish than 

 perhaps any other river in the world. Immense numbers penetrate 

 from the Caspian Sea to a considerable distance into the several mouths 

 of the Volga, and many thousand small vessels are employed in the 

 fisheries. The fish taken in the largest quantities are sturgeon, carp, 

 and pike of extraordinary size. Caviar is made of the roe of one 

 species of sturgeon, and isinglass from the skin and entrails of another, 

 which is called by the Russians Beluga. Seals also come from tho 

 Caspian into the mouths of the Volga, where they are taken. Steam- 

 boats ply on the Volga from the Twer to the Caspian. 



VOLHYNIA (Wolyusk), a government of West Russia, is bounded 

 N.W. by Grodno, N. by Minsk, E. by Kiew, S. by Podolia, aud \V. by 

 Galicia and Poland. Its area is 27,434 square miles; the population 

 in 1846 was 1,4 45,500. 



The country is an elevated level extending at the foot of the Carpa- 

 thian chain. On the northern frontier there are extensive peat moors 

 and morasses, and where there are hills they are clothed with the 

 finest forests, chiefly of pine, though there are some which consist 

 entirely of oaks, beeches, and limes. The southern portion is undu- 

 lating, and has two ridges of low hills, which enter it from Podolia 

 and decline towards the centre of the province. These chains of hills 

 (generally not more than 300 feet high), are covered with forests, and 

 are to be considered as the extreme offsets of the Carpathians on this 

 side. In the southern district they rUe to the plateau of Awratyn, to 

 which some give an elevation of 1000 feet This plateau extends from 

 Awratyn to Bieloserka (from the north to the south-west) for about 

 one degree ; and forma part of the watershed between the Baltic and 

 the Euxiue. There is no great river in the government. There are 

 great numbers of large ponds, and several mineral-springs. The 

 climate resembles that of Southern Germany, only that the winter is 

 rather more severe, and the night frosts protracted to a later period, 

 so that the rivers ore every year frozen. There are 110 prevalent 

 endemics except tho Plica J'olonica. Locusts periodically desolate 

 the fields. 



Volhynia is one of the most fertile provinces of Russia, and there 

 is perhaps no other in which agriculture is so general and so flourish- 

 ing. But agriculture is still in a backward state, and farming imple- 

 ments are rude. The rich crops of grain are to be attributed to the 

 fertile soil. Iu the northern border, where there are many marshal. 

 there aro the most luxuriant pastures. 13e.-iJes rye, bailey of several 



