ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 119 



of the nobility of Samogatia it is also degraded beyond 

 conception, since in the district of Telsh there are not 

 fewer than 700 individals of noble descent who cultivate 

 the ground with their own hands ! 



' The number of houses in Telsh is 160, of which one 

 half are inhabitated by Jews, who are mostly very 

 indigent.' 



My route led from Vilna to Vitebsk. Following up- 

 ward from Dunaburg the course of the Dwina, and 

 passing New Alexandrosky on the right bank of the 

 Dwina and Poletka we reach the town of Poletsk, one 

 of the oldest towns mentioned in Russian history. It 

 was formerly the provincial town of a district of the same 

 name, which in 1796 was united to that of Vitebsk. 



' It was known to the ancients under the name of 

 Pletiscum, and in the time of Ruric, the Russian 

 Egbert,' says Pinkerton, c it had its own princes, who 

 reigned there until the time of Vladimir the Great. This 

 prince, irritated at the refusal of Rogneda, daughter of 

 the reigning prince Rogvalde, to marry him, laid siege to 

 the city, took it, killed the prince and his two sons, 

 married the princess against her will, and added the 

 principality of Poletsk to his dominions. After this the 

 son of Rogneda obtained this principality from his father, 

 Vladimir, and his descendants continued to reign there for 

 several centuries, until 1305, when Guedemin built 

 Vilna, which became then the capital of those parts of 

 Lithuania. But even to the time of Peter the Great the 

 Russian Tsars continued to take the title of Prince of 

 Poletsk. In the intervening ages it was repeatedly 

 taken and retaken by the Russians and Poles, but it 

 generally remained in the hands of the latter until 1772, 

 when Catherine II. united it to her empire.' 



The area of forests in the government of Vitebsk is 

 1,738,000, of which 380,615 desatins belong to the crown, 

 equivalent to 44*5 desatins of forests, or 9'7 desatins of 

 crown forests per square verst, and to 2'L desatins of 



