ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 117 



north-west is the government of Kovno. In the govern- 

 ment of Kovno the area of forests is 768,000 desatins, of 

 which 243,765 desatins belong to the crown, equivalent 

 to 2T9 desatius of forests, or 6'9 desatins of crown 

 forests per square vcrst, and to 0'7 desatins of forests, or 

 0'2 desatins of crown forests per inhabitant. The annual 

 felling in the crown forests yield 147 cubic feet, and the 

 revenue is 16'9 kopecs per desatin. 



Kovno, the capital, is an ancient town, finely situated 

 for commerce at the confluence of the Villia and the 

 Niemen, bears numerous marks of depopulation, poverty, 

 and decay. The pavement of the market place is over- 

 grown with grass, and many of the public buildings seem 

 hastening to ruin. The population does not exceed four 

 thousand, of whom a great proportion are Jews, and the 

 rest Roman Catholics. 



This statement I make on the authority of Dr Pinkerton. 

 In an account of his journeying in this district, he 

 writes : ' From Kovno we continued to travel down the 

 banks of the Niemen for about twelve versts, when we 

 changed horses at a village swarming with Jews, with 

 whom I left a Testament and a few tracts. At Svedrick, 

 another populous Jewish town, I conversed with the 

 people for an hour, and gave them two Hebrew Testa- 

 ments and a Hebrew tract. We prosecuted our journey 

 all night northward till about four in the morning, when 

 we arrived at the district town of Rossiena. With some 

 difficulty I obtained a room at the house of a Jew, where 

 I attempted to get a few hours rest ; but the place was so 

 cold and so uncomfortable that I felt not at all refreshed 

 by it. 



' Rossiena is chiefly inhabited by Jews ; and is now but 

 an insignificant looking place, though formerly the 

 residence of a Voivod under the Poles. It looks more 

 like a village than a town ; the houses are mere wooden 

 huts, and most of the streets not even paved. The 

 Samogatian population of the district of Rossiena amounts 

 to about 90,000. 



