LITnUANIA. 



2G5 



the Narev basin, near the Polish frontier. It does a considerable trade, and is 

 the centre of an extensive woollen industry. On the right bank of the Niémen 

 stands Grodno, capital of the government of like name, a town of mean houses 

 and huts, relieved here and there by some large buildings, palaces, or barracks. It, 



Fig. 125. — ViLNA : View taken fuom the Snipiski Suburb. 



is an historical place, Avhere, after 1675, every third Polish Diet was held. The 

 mineral waters of Drmkeniki, in its neighbourhood, are much frequented. 



Vilna, the Russian Yilno, the great city of Lithuania, and formerly its capital, 

 lies on the Yiliya, a tributary of the Niémen. From the earliest times it was a 

 sacred place, with the temple of Perkun, the god of thunder, on the site of which 

 Jagello built the cathedral, still the chief edifice of the place. The historic 

 castles famed in Polish song are in ruins, but in the lower town there are several 

 public monuments, churches, palaces, and even a Tatar mosque. Vilna had a 

 population of 100,000 in the sixteenth century, and before the arrival of the 

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