32S RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



history is presented by a city situated in the midst of solitudes, and lying as 

 near to the pole as Ijabrador, Cape Farewell in Greenland, or Kamchatka, yet 

 attracting a population of hundreds of thousands, thanks to its commercial 

 advantages and the influences of political centralization. But so long as the 

 inhabitants had to depend on the local resources, this great lacustrine territory 

 could never have developed large centres of population. It is known to have been 

 occupied by fishing and hunting tribes from a remote antiquity, for objects 

 belonging to the stone age have been found on the shores of Onega and the neigh- 

 bouring lakes. A rampart of rough-hewn blocks 3,220 yards long has been 

 traced near the small Lake Lujand, south-east of Onega, but the nationality of 

 its builders is unknown, no human remains having been discovered in the 

 surrounding graves. The tumuli occurring near the Svir, south-west of Onega, 

 contain two distinct types of crania — one brachycephalous, the other dolicho- 

 cephalous and prognathous like the African. 



Population : Finns and Great Russians. 



The intruding Great Russians now occupy nearly all the Volkhov basin, and 

 have at many points overstepped their old historical limits marked by Lake 

 Peipus and the rivers Narova, Neva, and Svir. But within their ethnological 

 domain proper there still remain detached groups and enclaves of Finnish popu- 

 lations. In the Msta basin, and on the uplands skirted on the east by the Valdai" 

 crests, there dwell Karelian Finns, descendants of those removed hither by Peter 

 the Great, and who had here been probably preceded by the Chudes, the 

 " Prodigies," " Monsters," " Foreigners," whos3 remains are found in the sur- 

 rounding tumuli. East of the Narva others have preserved the name of Votes 

 (Vadjalaiset), formerly belonging to a widely difl'used nation already in the enjoy- 

 ment of a relatively advanced culture in the ninth century. Upwards of eight 

 thousand mounds, mostly small and j)oor in old remains, have been examined by 

 Ivanovskiy, and the two thousand crania found in them seem to belong to the Ural- 

 Altaic race. On the west side of Onega, and farther south between Lakes Ladoga 

 and Belo (" White "), there dwell some Vepses, or Northern Chudes, here and there 

 forming distinct communities variously estimated at from 12,000 to 25,000. Their 

 speech is of a peculiarly archaic type, but they are being rapidly "Russified," and 

 in several of their villages Russian already prevails, or is largely mingled with the 

 local dialect. Most of the women have preserved their language better than 

 their Finnish type : according to Mai'nov few have the slant eyes of the 

 Mongolians, and many are distinguished for their beauty, quite in the "Nov- 

 gorod style." Nearly all the Vepses are brachycephalous, and taller than the 

 average Russian. To judge from the names of their domestic animals, iron, 

 gold, zinc, agricultural terms, they seem to be indebted to the Russians, Swedes, 

 and Lithuanians for their culture. They still believe in their household gods, 

 and on occupying a nev/ home never forget to fetch the embers from the old 

 hearth, and slip a bit of bread under the oven. But if the cock neglects to crow 



