THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN ASIA, 



SITUATION AND EXTENT* 

 Miles. Degree?, Sq. Miles. 



Length 5300? . , C 37 and 190 East longitude.} „ tfcnrvnrk 



Breadth 1 800 i between i 50 and 78 North latitude. £ 3 ' 65 °> O0 ° 



Bound aries. ...The Russian dominions in Asia are bounded on the 

 dorth by the Arctic Ocean ; on the east by the seas of Kamtschat- 

 ka and Ochotsk, or the Eastern Ocean ; on the south by Chinese and 

 Independent Tartary, Persia, and Turkey ; and on the west by Rus- 

 sia in Europe. 



Divisions. ...The governments of the Russian empire in general 

 have already been enumerated : those of which a part or the whole 

 are in Asia, are Caucasia, Saratof, Simbirsk, Orenburg, Ufa, Kazan, 

 Perm, Tobolsk, Kolhyvan, Irkutsk : to which is to be added the pen- 

 insula of Kamtschatka. 



The three great governments of Tobolsk, Kolhyvan, and Irkutsk, 

 are called by the general name of Siberia, from an ancient city named 

 Sibir, which is said to have stood on the banks of the Irtish, near 

 the present city of Tobolsk, and to have been the residence of the 

 old sovereigns of this part of Asia. The government of Tobolsk is 

 divided into the two provinces of Tobolsk and Tomsk ; and that of 

 Irkutsk into the four provinces of Irktutsk, Nershinsk, Yakutsk, and 

 Okotsk. 



Mountains ....The mountains of Asiatic Russia are the Uralian 

 chain, which divides it from Russian Europe; the mountains of Cau- 

 casus ; those of Altai, called by the Chinese the Golden Ridge ; and 

 those of Nershinsk, or Russian Daouria. 



RivERS....The chief rivers of this country are the Ob or Oby, the 

 largest in the Russian empire, the length of its course being 1900 

 sniles ; and the Yenissei, which has a course of about 1750. The 

 former falls into the sea of Oo, a gulf of the Frozen Ocean; in which 

 ocean the Yenissei likewise terminates. The other principal rivers 

 are the Irtish, which falls into the Ob ; the Lena ; the Angora, which 

 falls into the Yenissei; the Argun or Argoon, the boundary of the 

 Russian and the Chinese territory; the Selinga ; and the Yaik or 

 Ural. 



In the southern part of Siberia, near the confines of Chinese Tar- 

 iary, is the lake or sea of Baikal, 350 miles long and about 50 broad. 

 There are also other lakes of less note. 



Metals, minerals.. ..Siberia contains mines of gold, silver, cop- 

 per, iron, lead, jasper, and lapis lazuli. Asiatic Russia also produces 

 sulphur, alum sal ammoniac, vitriol, nitre, and natron, in abundance. 



Climate, soil, produce... .The government of Caucasia, and in 

 general the southern parts of this extensive region, are extremely 

 fertile, owing more to nature 'than industry. The parts that are cul- 



