INTRODUCTION. XXV 



mining' and nuiiiut'aoturing develoijment of Russia. Tlie oliiof obstacles to this at 

 present are the incomplete limitation of private estates in many parts of the dis- 

 trict, the scarcity of forests in many places and the lack of branch lines to tlie 

 chiet railways wliich traverse the country from the northern and soutlieru slopes of 

 the range of tlie Caucasus. And yet the further rapid development of the inanii- 

 factnring activity of tlie Caucasus may be looked forward to in the near future, lie- 

 cause its happy situation between two seas and the magnificent conditions of climate 

 and soil of many parts of the region, as well as the measures being taken by the 

 (Tovernmeut in aid of its economical development, are drawing to it the general 

 attention of all Eussia, more so than is the case with many other outlying regions 

 of the Empire. At fhe same time the local population itself is displaying evident 

 tendencies to a development of trade and industry, the more so as among this local 

 population the Georgians, Armenians and Persians in Baku have an obvious bent to 

 both these forms of activitv. 



IX. The Southern PtEGiox of European Russia, adjacent 

 TO THE Caspian. Azoa' and Black Seas. 



This region comprises the territory of the Don and the governments of Astrak- 

 han, Ekaterinoslav, Tauris or the Crimea, Kherson and Bessarajija. The chief towns 

 are Novocherkassk. Astrakhan, Ekaterinoslav, Simferopol, Kherson, Odessa and Kislii- 

 niov. In the most part these are fertile steppes, capable of a high agricultural culti- 

 vation. Only in the south of the Crimea are they traversed by the projectioii of a 

 low mountain ridge, and in Bessarabia, by mountains of inconsiderable elevation, often 

 regarded as the last spurs of the Carpathians. The only importance, however, is pos- 

 sessed by that granite bed which defines the rapids of the Dnieper and the outcrop 

 of coal measures and every kind of ore in the region of the Donets. In the. whole 

 of this district, which a hundred years ago was still almost a desert, at the present 

 day a population of ten million inhabitants must be reckoned, settled upon 566 thous- 

 and square versts, or 11,710 square geographical miles. Contiguity with the seas and 

 the abundance of the steppes, watered by numerous rivers, beginning with the Volga, 

 Don and Donets and ending with the Dnieper and Dniester, have always attracted 

 thither emigrants from other parts of Eussia and from other countries, led to the 

 formation of Cossack and Colonist settlements and to the transference thither of 

 whole villages from other parts of Eussia, as occuiTed in the end of the last and the 

 beginning of the present century. Hence it is that the greater part of this region 

 often even to-day bears the name of Novorossia (New Eussia). 



Having become Eussian, this country, especially the shores of the Azov and 

 Black seas, attracted trade, and Eostov, Taganrog and Odessa became the centres of 

 the foreign grain trade. The industrial development, which began here in the thirties, 

 shows great promise, especially in connection with the rich and extensive coal measures 

 of the Donets region. Eock salt, pyrites, the richest beds of iron ores, such as exist at 

 Krivoi Eog, Korsak-Mogila and other places, as also ores of copper, zinc, merctu'y, 

 silver, lead and manganese, the abundance of most excellent fire clays and various 

 other kinds of minerals lying in the neighbourhood of the coal measures, define both 



