THE MIR, OR COMMUNE. 



463 



both " village " and "the world," is distinguished by its orthography only from 

 another term meaning "peace," "contract," "agreement," and the mir is, in fact, 

 the general consensus of the village families to the distribution of the land. 

 When, as in the north, the available territory is extensive, the soil is common 

 to several villages jointly constituting a volost. In this way about GOO villages of 

 the Olonetz district are grouped in 30 communes. A single volost, stretching for 

 36 miles along the Svir, and comprising 550,000 acres, includes over 100 villages, 

 and, as there is here no lack of land, the peasantry may often shift their quarters 



Fig. 24 S. — Distribution of Industiue? ^uT liadle to Excise Duty. 



L c-: P 



50° 



E.ofG. 



Valup nvPT ffi.nnn.oooto £l.fion.onn to £«00,000 to fifio.ooo to 



£16,000,000. £16,000,000. £6,400,000. £1,600,000. £800,000. 



£so.ooo to I-ess than 

 £160,000. £80,000. 



and select more convenient sites, merely marking the trees that servo as temporary 

 boundaries. The Ural Cossacks are grouped in the same way in one vast volost, 

 in which, till recently, every able-bodied adult was free to occupy any vacant land, 

 but where the principle of private ownership is now spreading. The study of old 

 records has shown that the grouping of vill iges in volosts was the rule in former 

 times. 



With the growth of the population and diminution of unoccupied lands, these 

 volosts have been naturally broken up into distinct mirs, in wliich the hamlet 



