120 FORESTRY IN LITHUANIA. 



forests, or 0'5 desatins of crown forests per inhabitant. 

 The annual fellings in the crown forests yield 11*3 cubic 

 feet, and the revenue is 12'6 kopecs per desatin. 



The town of Vitebsk stands on the banks of the 

 Dwina and Vitspa, which flow through it. It is a very 

 ancient town, and is said to have been known to the 

 Scandanavians and Greeks as early as the tenth century. 

 The country around is level, and abounds in extensive 

 forests, and the land produces abundance of grain and 

 excellent hemp. 



In the government of Moghileff the area of forests is 

 1,184,000 desatins, of which 180,415 desatins belong to 

 the crown, equivalent to 28'1 desatins of forests, or 4'2 

 desatins of crown forests per square verst, and to 1*3 

 desatins of forests, or 0'2 desatins of crown forests per 

 inhabitant. The fellings in the crown forests yield 13'4 

 cubic feet, and the revenue is 18'3 kopecs per desatin. 



' The province of Moghileff,' says Pinkerton, ' is about 

 350 versts long, and 300 broad, with a population of 

 upwards of 900,000 souls ; all are Russians, except a 

 few Lithuanians, and a numerous tribe of Jews, who 

 formed a settlement here during the period of the Russian 

 civil wars, when White Russia was in the hands of the 

 Poles. It abounds in extensive forests of fir and hazel- 

 wood; those in the district of Tchernigov are considered 

 the finest. Numbers of the peasantry are employed in 

 felling and floating timber to Riga by the Dwina, and to 

 the Black Sea by the Dnieper, and to those parts of Little 

 Russia which are but scantily supplied with this necessary 

 article. 



' The principal commodity of trade in Moghileff is 

 leather ; there are upwards of twenty tanneries ; but its 

 merchants carry on a considerable commerce also with 

 the ports of Danzig, Memel, and Riga, in potash, hemp, 

 leather, and grain. 



' In this district is situated one of the old towns, or 

 rather cities, of Russia, interesting on account of ancient 



