949 



E3SLING. 



ESTREMADURA. 



860 



tin wares, paper, &c., and a good trade in wine and other agricultural 

 products. 



ESSLINO, or ESSLINGEN, a small village in Lower Austria, 

 about 7 miles E. from Vienna, from which Marshal Massena derived 

 his title of Duke of Essling, bestowed upon him by the Emperor 

 Napoleon I. [ASPEBN.] 



ESSOVES. [AUBE.] 



ESTAING. [AVEYRON.] 



ESTAIRES. [NoRD.] 



ESTHONIA, or REVEL, one of the Baltic provinces of Russia, is 

 bounded N. by the Gulf of Finland ; E. by the government of St, Peters- 

 burg, from which it is separated by the Lake Peipus and the Narova ; 

 S. by Lake Peipus and the government of Livonia ; and W. by the 

 Baltic. The area is 7993 square miles, including the islands along 

 the coast Dago (434 square miles), Worms (36 square miles), Nuuk, or 

 (33 square miles), Wrangel, Nargen, the two Roogs, Odensholm, 

 ffcihvlm, Jl'-ft, Kranholm, and 59 smaller islands, and the portion of 

 Lake Peipus that belongs to this government, and extends over 142 

 square miles. The population of Esthonia was estimated in 1846 at 

 310,400. 



Esthonia, which is called by the native inhabitants Werova, 'border- 

 land,-* or Meie-Maa, ' our land,' was subjugated by the Danes in 1220, 

 aud in 1346 sold by them to the Teutonic knights, whose grand 

 master, the first duke of Livonia and Esthonia, acknowledged the king 

 of I' .land as lord paramount in 1561. After being an object of con- 

 tinued contest between the Russians, Poles, and Swedes, it became at 

 length a province of Sweden in 1 660. It was wrested from the Swedish 

 crown by Peter the Great in 1710, and was ceded finally to Russia 

 under the treaty of Nystadt in 1721. The extent of the coast is about 

 350 miles long, without reckoning its windings. The surface of the 

 province is level, occasionally varied only by isolated hills and emi- 

 nences. The northern coast from Revel to the mouth of the Narova 

 is several fathoms higher than the Baltic, aud strewn with masses of 

 granite : the western coast is lower, but both are edged for some 

 miles inland by a deep bed of sand. The soil of the interior districts 

 of Esthonia, which are the most fertile, is a mixture of loam, sand, 

 and clay ; in all parts are large swamps, many of which are impass- 

 able, except when hardened by the frosts of winter. The ratio of the 

 cultivated to the uncultivated and wooded soil hardly exceeds one third. 



Esthonia contains 228 small lakes, besides the northern end of Lake 

 Peipus. The Narova, which flows northward out of the Peipus into 

 the Baltic, skirts the east of the government of Esthonia, but the 

 stream belongs entirely to the province of St. Petersburg. This pro- 

 vince has no streams larger than rivulets or brooks, some of which 

 flow under ground, and occasionally con tain pearl-mussels. There 

 are sulphureous and saline springs. 



As the province lies between 58 30' and 59 40' N. lat. the climate 

 must be severe, but owing to the proximity of the sea it is less so 

 than that of some of the neighbouring provinces. The winter lasts 

 from the end of October till May, and is very cold and stormy ; there 

 is hardly any spring, summer, which is short and hot, following almost 

 immediately on the melting of the snow ; the autumn is dreary and 

 rainy, and the marshy soil then becomes a sea of mud, impassable 

 till the frost hardens it. Rain and snow often fall at the same time ; 

 mist prevails all through the year, and for weeks together it drizzles 

 without either clearing up or coming to rain. In October and 

 November the nights and days ar scarcely distinguishable, so dense 

 are the clouds. The summer nights, which are as light almost as 

 day, and the Aurora Borealis in winter, are pleasant peculiarities of 

 the climate. 



The soil, though deficient in fertility, yields more than sufficient 

 for the maintenance of the population. Agriculture is the principal 

 branch of industry, and about one-fifth of the whole surface is under 

 the plough. The chief crops are rye, barley, and oats; some wheat, 

 maize, hemp, flax, hops, and tobacco are also raised. The surplus 

 corn is used for making spirits. The Weissenatein districts, in the 

 south-east, produce much hemp and flax. As the harvest season is 

 attended by heavy rains, the farmers have kilns in which the moist 

 grain is dried, as described in the article COURLAND, vol. ii. col. 615. 

 Esthonia has large meadows, and produces abundance of hay ; it has 

 likewise good grazing grounds. Vegetables are of universal growth, 

 but little attention is given to fruits. The woods and forests, com- 

 posed of the fir, pine, elm, birch, larch, and beech, occasionally inter- 

 mixed with the oak, alder, lime, crab-apple, &c., spread over an area 

 of nbout 3300 square miles ; they are densest in the eastern districts 

 of Wegenberg and Weissenstein. The land is in some parts manured 

 with decayed wood. 



Next to agriculture the rearing of cattle is the most important 

 branch of rural industry. The native horses and horned cattle are 

 small Large droves of oxen from the Ukraine are fattened for the 

 St. Petersburg market. The sheep are of the German white and black 

 species. Goats, swine, and poultry are reared in great numbers. Of 

 wild animals, wolves are the most common ; next come bears, lynxes, 

 foxes, badgers, martens, and squirrels ; a few elks are to be met with 

 in the Wesenberg forests. The fisheries along the coast and in Lake 

 Peipus are very productive. The mineral products are stone for 

 building, potters'-clay, and gypsum. There is abundance of peat, but 

 irood is alone used for fuel. 



The majority of Ihe inhabitants are Esthouiaus : they are of Finnish 

 descent, of diminutive stature, aud have light-coloured hair, blue 

 eyes, a small flat nose, and flattened face. The landholders are 

 universally of German or Danish extraction, and constitute the aristo- 

 cracy of the country ; and there are some Russians and a few Swedes 

 and Finlauders intermixed with them. The estates are all large; 

 their management, the nature of the farm-buildings, aud the relation 

 between the aristocracy and the peasantry, are the same as stated in 

 the article above referred to. [COURLAND.] But the dwellings of the 

 peasantry are in general wholly inferior to those of the same class iu 

 Corn-land or almost any other part of Russia. The Esthonian peasant's 

 house has only one apartment, with one opening the door through 

 which the smoke has to make its way, for there is no chimney. This 

 apartment serves as bed-room, sitting-room, kitchen, store-room, 

 sheep-pen, and hog-sty. In these houses during the winter the men 

 employ themselves in making sledge-runners, staves, hoops, wooden 

 dishes and spoons, or in preparing sheep-skins for clothing. The 

 women spin, weave, sew, and bleach, cut torches of birchwood, and 

 plait birch-bark into sandals. The peasants were formerly serfs bound 

 to the soil, but by a ukase of the emperor Alexander they are now 

 bound to furnish only a fixed quantity of labour (not the whole 

 time) to their masters ; aud by giving the lord half a year's notice, a 

 peasant may quit the estate ; but as the lord manages to keep him 

 continually in his debt, this abstract right is of little use to the 

 peasant. The peasant cannot acquire or hold landed property ; if he 

 leaves one master, it is only to place himself xmder another. 



The Lutheran is the predominant religion of the province ; even 

 the Russo-Greeks have not more than eight or ten churches in it. The 

 superintendence of all ecclesiastical affairs in the Lutheran Church is 

 vested in the provincial consistory at Revel. The department of 

 education, which includes a gymnasium at Revel and about fifty other 

 schools, is under the control of the university of Dorpat. 



The manufactures of Esthonia are extremely limited ; the peasantry 

 are clothed not only with linen but with coarse woollen cloth woven 

 in their own houses. The only establishments of any importance are 

 in Revel, where hats, leather, powder and starch, vinegar, and some 

 iron-ware are made. Ships and boats are constructed in the capital 

 and in the islands, and spirits are made on many estates as well as in 

 the towns : the distilleries of spirits amount to nearly 400. 



All transports of corn and other articles are made in winter, and 

 if the season is mild, and consequently the forests and roads are 

 marshy, communication between towns is cut off. In December, when 

 the ground becomes firmly frozen, all the paths and roads are occupied 

 by long files of sledges, each drawn by one small horse and laden with 

 a few small sacks of corn, hastening away to the sea-port towns. All 

 forest-labour is performed in the winter ; in other seasons the marshy 

 soil would not support the workmen. The quantity of wood used for 

 fuel in the houses, distilleries, and kilns is enormous ; the peasants' 

 shoes and the bark for the house-roofs alone consume a large number 

 of trees. 



Revel is the emporium of trade, but for want of water-communi- 

 cations it is not of any great extent. The exports consist of corn, 

 brandy, salt-fish, skins and hides, butter, tallow, smoked herrings and 

 salmon, and salt. 



Though public affairs are administered on the same footing as in 

 the other Russian governments, the country retains some vestiges of 

 its ancient constitution, among which are -a provincial college or 

 council, an inferior tribunal of justice, a consistory, and the right of 

 making brandy without a licence from the government. 



Esthonia is divided into four circles. There is no town deserving 

 the name in the whole province with the exception of Revel, which is 

 described under its proper head. [REVEL.] 



ESTISSAC. [AuBE.] 



ESTRELLA, SERKA D'. [BEIRA.] 



ESTREMADURA, a province of Spain, is bounded N. by the 

 province of Leon, S. by the province of Sevilla, W. by Portugal, E. 

 by Castilla la Nueva, and S.E. by the province of Cordova. It is 

 situated between 37 58' and 40 32' N. lat., 4 32' and 7 28' W. long. 

 The greatest length north to south is about 180 miles; the greatest 

 width east to west is about 130 miles. It is divided into the two 

 following modern provinces : 



Surface. A range of mountains, which is a continuation of the 

 Montanas de Toledo, enters Estremadura from Castilla la Nueva, aud 

 crossing the province from east to west, joins the Serra de I'ortalegre 

 on the frontiers of Portugal. This mountain range divides the 

 province into two nearly equal parts, of which the northern part 

 constitutes the modern province of Caceres, and the southern that of 

 Badajoz. The northern part, or Caceres, is usually called Estrema- 

 dura Alta, or Upper Estremadura, and the southern part, or Badajoz, 

 Estremadura Baja, or Lower Estremadura. This central mountain 



