613 



ASTRAKHAN. 



ASTURIAS. 



614 



" Here you may see Tartars from Kuma, Kuban, and the Five 

 Mountains ; Turchmens, Nogays, Kiptshaks, and Cossacks from the 

 Jaik ; " but, above all, it was this traveller's fortune to meet a 

 Kirghishian embassy in the Bazaar, " who had but little of the air of 

 diplomatists about them." 



About 19 miles to the north-east of Astrakhan lies Krasiwi-yar, 

 the capital of the circle of that name, a small town of about 2000 

 inhabitants, with two churches, built on an island formed by the 

 Algara, the Akhtuba, and the Basan, three arms of the Volga, and sur- 

 rounded by dilapidated walls with wooden towers, which were con- 

 structed by the Czar Alexis Michailovitsh to protect the town against 

 the incursions of the Cossacks and Kalmucks. The inhabitants live 

 comfortably upon the produce of their fishery, and of their gardens, 

 orchards, and vineyards, which are situated on the slopes of the hills, 

 east of the town. It is celebrated for its asparagus, the eatable stem 

 of which is above 20 inches in length. 



YemotayetMt, another capital of a circle, situated on the steep 

 right lnk of the Volga, is the seat of a tribunal, which has jurisdic- 

 ti .11 .ft the 4900 kibitkes of Kalmucks who pass the winter in its 

 vicinit , ; it is a circle of houses, built round a email fortress and 

 inhabited by Cossacks and traders. 



Tthcnw-yar, the capital of the circle of Tsherno-yarsk, and ft well- 

 fortified town, is likewise on the right bank of the Volga, about 150 

 miles north-west of Astrakhan. It consists of 300 houses, is built in 

 the shape of a polygon, with five entire and two semi-bastions, has 

 a stone church embellished with two towers, having gilt cupolas, and 

 contains about 2000 inhabitants. 



The circle of Krasno-yargk comprehends the tract of country which 

 lies along the course of the Ural, and is inhabited by the Ural Cos- 

 sacks. Along the line of the Ural are numerous watagys, or fishing 

 villages, erected for the fishermen of the crown, containing dwellings, 

 "tore-houses, workshops, rope and net yards, every convenience for 

 boiling down oil and making caviar, and even cellars for ice, which is 

 used for keeping the fish fresh. 



Antiijuitife. Besides the rums of Adshotarkhan, referred to in the 

 next article, vestiged of Tartar dominion in former ages lie scattered 

 in various directions over the steppes which surround Astrakhan. 

 The greater part of them are sepulchral mounds, here _ and there 

 distinguished by uncouth figures, carved in stone : their fe'atures and 

 attire obviously stamp them of Mongolian origin. A sepulchral 

 mound near Prishibinskoi, a village on the Akhtuba, is raised on a 

 quadrangular substructure of earth, and consists of six flat vaults 

 abutting one against another, the whole being about 900 feet in circuit 

 and 18 feet in height. The mortar with which the walls are cemented 

 has become aa solid as the hardest stone, and resists the impression of 

 the strongest instruments. It would seem, from the vessels and 

 ornaments which have been found within it, that this structure was 

 formerly a place of interment for some princely family. 



ASTRAKHAN, the capital of the government of Astrakhan, is 

 about 6 miles higher up the Volga, as some maintain, than the 

 Astrakhan, or rather Adshotarkhan, which was the metropolis of the 

 ancient kingdom, and according to Forster was demolished together 

 with Sarai its neighbour (the " urbs magna, sedes regia Tartarorum" 

 of Abulfeda), by Timour in the winter of 1395. Other writers how- 

 ever are of opinion that the ancient capital stood between the banks 

 of the Akhtuba and the Volga, 46 miles higher than the present city, 

 on a spot which was occupied not long ago by a manufactory of 

 saltpetre. Both of these conjectures rest on plausible grounds, for 

 both sites contain the remains of extensive buildings : and each of 

 these masses of ruins has contributed large portions of the stone with 

 which the public edifices in the modern capital are constructed. 

 Astrakhan, which is become the principal seat of Russian intercourse 

 with Asia and the storehouse of fish for the whole empire, stands in 

 46' 21' N. lat., 47 55' E. long., on the island of Zaietchy Bugor, 

 which lies between the small river Kutum and the Volga. It is 

 situated at a distance of 820 miles S. E. from Moscow, and according to 

 Dr. OoBbel, in the 'Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,' vol. x., 

 it is 56J miles from the mouth of the Volga. The town, as stated 

 in the preceding article, has water-communication with St. Petersburg, 

 from which it is upwards of 1200 miles distant. It has a circumference 

 of rather more than 3 miles, and a population of about 46,000. The 

 uneven ground on which it stands, its half-decayed battlements, and 

 a multitude of steeples, minarets, and cupolas, give it a handsome 

 appearance at a distance ; and the effect is heightened by contrast 

 with the flat marshy ground which surrounds it. The climate of such 

 a site cannot rank among the healthiest ; yet the annual mortality 

 amounts only to 1 in 86, and it is to be borne in mind that during 

 the fishing season the population is increased temporarily by several 

 thousands. A long canal traverses Astrakhan from east to west in the 

 direction of its greatest length. The town is irregularly built, and 

 the houses present a singular medley of European and Asiatic taste ; 

 they are constructed principally of wood, and are upwards of 4000 

 in number. Astrakhan is the seat of an Armenian as well as of a 

 Greek archbishop, under the former of whom there are four, and under 

 the latter twenty-five churches ; besides these the Roman Catholics, 

 Lutherans, and Hindoos, have each a place of worship, and the 

 Mohammedans have nineteen mescheds or oratories. Independently 

 of an academy for marine cadet) and a Greek seminary for eccle- 



siastics, there are two printing-offices, a lu'gh school, a grammar-school, 

 and four other schools in the town for the education of native-born sub- 

 jects. The chief architectural ornaments of Astrakhan are the Kreml, 

 or citadel, which contains the cathedral and barracks ; the ' new ' or 

 ' white ' town, so called from its being embellished with the principal 

 government buildings and the three factory halls, one for the use of 

 ; the Russian, another for the Asiatic, and a third for the Hindoo 

 [ dealers ; the beautiful street inhabited by the Persian merchants, on 

 each side of which runs an arcade, supported by handsome columns ; 

 and the cathedral, which was erected in 1696, and like most eccle- 

 siastical edifices in Russia consists of a massive parallelogram with 

 four small cupolas on the roof, and a large one in the centre, from 

 which the building receives its light. The interior is splendidly 

 though not very tastefully decorated. The Roman Catholic and Arme- 

 nian churches are also handsome buildings ; and one of the meschcds 

 is a beautiful structure built of free-stone, and resembling the Chris- 

 tian churches of the East in shape. The Kreml is an ancient Tartar 

 fortress, surrounded by stone walls and battlements 18 feet high. 

 The remainder of the town comprises sixteen slobods, or suburbs, 

 beyond which the progress of modern improvement has transformed 

 moor and swamp into places of public resort and agreeable pro- 

 menades. The improvements outside of the town are not only 

 extensive but judiciously planned and executed. Astrakhan has a 

 dockyard and tin arsenal, and is the rendezvous for the Russian war- 

 ships that cruise in the Caspian. 



It has been calculated that in the fishing season the population of 

 Astrakhan is increased by at least 30,000 persons a motley concourse, 

 collected from almost every quarter of Asia and Europe, of whom 

 nearly one-third are Russian traders. The Tartar inhabitants of the 

 town number above 10,000 ; they are of three distinct races, the 

 Ghilan (of Western Persia), Buchanan, and Agriskhan (or ' mixed 

 race,' being tho issue of Hindoos settled in Astrakhan and Tartar 

 women), each of whom occupies a separate division of the Tartar 

 slobod. The Armenians are among the richest traders in Astrakhan. 

 The Georgians of Astrakhan are mostly mechanics. As temporary 

 residents only we may include the dealers who visit Astrakhan from 

 China and Bokhara ; the Kalmuck too is accounted a stranger, 

 although he has his wooden hut or felt tent permanently standing in 

 the outskirts of the town. Fishing ia his constant occupation. Tho 

 Hindoo population, which numbers only a few hundreds, are natives 

 of Mooltan and Lahore, and are noted for their love of flowers and of 

 money. Their stores in the Indian bazaar have each of them a flower-bed 

 in front ; and they are never without a nosegay between their fingers. 

 Their business is to lend money on as usurious terms as possible, and 

 their accumulations being seconded by the utmost simplicity and 

 parsimony in their mode of living, they rise quickly into affluence. 

 The European residents form a motley assemblage of traders, artisans, 

 teachers, government officers, and artists from north, south, east, and 

 west. 



The establishments for weaving silks and cottons at Astrakhan arc 

 nearly 100 in number. Considerable quantities of leather, parti.u- 

 larly a superior description of morocco and shagreen, as well as tallow 

 and soap, are manufactured. The numerous gardens in the town and 

 its environs produce, by means of irrigation, several fine species of 

 fruit, especially grapes, of which above a dozen sorts are frequently seen 

 in the same plot of ground : these are dried and form a considerable 

 article of export to the interior of Russia. The business of buying 

 and sealing, more than one-half of which has been engrossed by tho 

 Armenians, is conducted in 28 khans or bazaars, which contain 1500 

 stores built of stone, and 560 wooden stalls. Raw silk and silk goods, 

 cotton and cotton-yarn, drugs, dye-stuffs, carpets, oil, rice, and other 

 eastern productions, form the chief importations : the exportatious 

 are principally woollen cloth, linens, cochineal, velvet, iron, salt, 

 fruits, fish, caviar, isinglass, wine, liquorice, soda, hides, skins, and 

 grain. 



ASTURIAS, a former province of Spain, bearing the title^ of prin- 

 cipality, ' el Principado de Asturias,' is situated between 42" 57 and 

 43 42' N. lat, 4 30' and 7 9' W. long. It is bounded N. by the Bay 

 of Biscay, S. by the province of Leon, E. by the modern province of 

 Santander in Castilla Vieja, and W. by Galicia, The greatest length 

 east to west is 130 miles ; the greatest width north to south is 50 mile.o. 

 It constitutes the modern province of Oviedo, which has an area of 

 3686 square miles, and hod in 1849 a population of 510,000. 



Surface. The line of separation between Asturias and Leon is 

 formed by the summit-level of the Asturian Mountains, a lofty ridge 

 continuous from the Pyr enees - Tui9 mouta in cliam enters Asturias 

 from Santander at the Sierra Alba, 8960 feet high, and passing on to 

 the Sierra de Pajares, 8628 feet high, the Pena de Penaranda, 11,000 

 feet high, and other lofty summits, enters Galicia at the Sierra de 

 Pefiamarela, 9450 feet high. Many offsets from this chain of mountains 

 extend northward into Asturias and in some cases nearly reach the 

 coast. Owing to the irregular manner in which the ridges and spurn 

 descend from the mountain crest the valleys have great variety of 

 form ; some are straight, steep, and rugged ; some are rounded into 

 basins ; and some are of gentle slope, watered by perennial streams, 

 cultivated in the central parts, and wooded on the slopes. Indeed 

 the surface generally is more irregular, broken, and wild than any 

 other province of Spain, except perhaps Galicia. With two or thrco 



