. 70 GEOGRAPHY. 



all Europe ; smaller lakes are the Onega, Peipus, Bielos, Saima, Ilmen, 

 &c. Finnland is especially rich in lakes ; in the south there are numerous 

 salt lakes, the most important of which is the Elton. 



The climate of so immense a country would naturally be very various ; 

 the northern part belongs to the frigid zone, and is bound up in perpetual 

 snow and ice ; in the south are cultivated the subtropical fruits and the 

 vine. As a general rule, the climate is more severe than in other parts of 

 Europe of equal latitude ; although in equal latitudes, the eastern portion is 

 much more severe than the western. 



The principal products are grain, hemp, flax, flaxseed, timber, iron, fish, and 

 wild animals. Rye is more cultivated than the other cerealia, wheat being 

 only raised in appreciable quantity in Poland, and rice and Indian corn in 

 the south. In particular portions of the empire are produced wine, spices, 

 medicinal plants, and tobacco. The forests of the north consist of pines 

 and birches ; those of the south of beech. The principal domestic animals 

 are cattle, sheep, hogs, and horses ; there are reindeer in the north, and 

 camels in the south. The wild animals are bears, wolves, sables, beavers^ 

 martins, weasels, foxes, badgers, wild cats, lynxes, otters, squirrels, and 

 in the south, antelopes. Besides those of iron, there are valuable mines 

 of copper, platinum, lead, and (in the Ural) gold. Large quantities of rock 

 salt are also mined. 



The sum total of the population amounts, in all probability, to about 

 sixty-six millions, of which sixty millions belong to the European portion, 

 including Poland and Finnland. Excepting about one million of Mongolians 

 (Baschkirs, Kirgises, Calmucks, Tartars, Samoiedes), the entire European 

 \ opulation belongs to the Caucasian race, which is here reducible to the 

 following stocks : 1, the Slavonic, constituting the great majority, and 

 divided into the Russians, Poles, Letts, Lithuanians, Serbians, Bulgarians, 

 Wallachians, and Moldavians ; 2, Tschudic, about three to four millions, 

 divided into Finns, Lapps, Esthonians, Livonians, Permians, Tscheremis- 

 sians, Tschuwaschians, &c. ; 3, Germanic, about half a million ; 4, Jewish, 

 about one million and a half; 5, Greek, about half a million. The general 

 ratio of population is very small, not much over ten to the square mile, 

 and even in the European portion scarcely thirty-five. 



The established religion of Russia is the Greek Catholic Church. Next 

 to this, the Roman Catholic (to which most of the Poles belong) has the 

 greatest number of adherents. There are, in addition, over two millions and a 

 half of Protestants, one million and a half of Jews, and one million and three 

 quarters of Mahommedans, thirty thousand Lamaites, &c. The intellectual 

 culture of the people is greatly in arrear, although much has been done within 

 the last century. At the head of the seminaries of learning stand seven uni- 

 versities : those of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Dorpat, Helsingfors, Charkow, 

 Kiew, and Kasan. These exercise a general supervision over all schools of 

 lower grade. The inhabitants of the arable regions carry on a lively trade 

 in the products of their farms, and the arts and manufactures exhibit a 

 steady progression in excellence and extent. The most important articles 

 of trade are candles, tallow, soap, leather, furs, sail cloth, linen, silks, potash, 

 10 



