Topography. The surface, in the most general view that can be taken of it, is two immense plains, the boundary between which is marked, though not very definitely, by a broad central ridge which stretches across it in an irregular waving line, mainly in a northeast direction, beginning on the frontiers of Poland, and terminating on the west side of the Ural Mountains, near lat. 62° N. This ridge forms the eastern continuation of the great watershed which divides the whole con-. tinent of Europe into a north and a south basin; but, unlike the west part, which is composed of lofty mountain chains or elevated plateaus, is only of moderate height, never exceeding 1,000 feet above sea-level. Even this height is attained only in the Valdai Hills, the far greater part of which, and of the remainder of the ridge, has an average height of not more than 500 feet. The only regions where the surface assumes a mountainous appearance are in the east, where the Ural chain, though nowhere, much exceeding 5,000 feet, looks more elevated, at least in its northern part, from its high latitude and consequent covering of perpetual snow; and in the south, where the Mountains of the Yaila chain, lining the southern shores of the Crimea, have a height of about 4,000 feet. With these exceptions the only other parts of European Russia which, according to the limits above assigned to it, do not belong to its two immense plains, are those districts of Perm and Orenburg which are situated on the east side of the Urals, and slope toward the almost boundless steppes of Asia. The coastline of European Russia was confined to the Arctic Ocean until the end of the 17th century, and it was only by conquest that Russia obtained a seaboard on the Baltic and the Black Sea. The Arctic Ocean, affording excellent fishing grounds in the western portion, makes, with the White Sea, a deep indentation on the north coast, but its gulfs, Kandalaksha, Onega and Dvina, are ice-bound for nine months every year. Archangel, the chief port, is comparatively unimportant. Farther east, Cheskaya and Pechora bays are surrounded by frozen deserts. The Kara Sea, between the crescentshaped island of Nova Zembla and the coast of Siberia, is navigable for a few weeks only every year. The islands of Kolgueff, Vaigatch, Nova Zembla, and the islands of Siberia are uninhabited. The Baltic Sea, with the Gulfs of Bothnia, Finland, and Riga, is the chief sea of Russia; but it nowhere touches purely Russian territory, its coasts being peopled by Finns, Letts, Esthonians and Germans. Nevertheless, three out of the five chief ports of Russia Reval, Libau and Riga - are situated on the Baltic Sea. Two of them are frozen during four to five months every year; and Libau is the only one which has its roadsteads open nearly all the year round.

The Black Sea acquires more and more importance every year. The fertile steppes of its littoral are being rapidly settled, and the centre of gravity of Russia's population is gradually shifting south. The Black Sea suffers, however, from a lack of good ports. Its great gulf, the Sea of Azov (ports Taganvrog and Rostoff), is very shallow; the fine ports of the Crimea are too remote from the mainland; and the seaboard of Northern Caucasus is separated from the interior by a high chain of mountains.

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Odessa is the chief port of this sea; and it has no rival in Russia except Petrograd. Nikolaiev is the principal naval arsenal; and Sebastopol remains a naval station. Batum, the chief port of Transcaucasia, is of great importance for the export of petroleum. The Caspian Sea, which receives the chief river of European Russia the Volga-is a valuable medium of communication between the central Asian dominions and the Caucasus, as also for trade with Persia; but it has no outlet to the ocean, nor is there any probability of connecting it advantageously by canal with the Black Sea, its level being 70 feet below sea-level.

Hydrography.- The rivers are remarkable for their number and magnitude. The broad central ridge already referred to forms the great water-shed of the country, sending the waters on its north side either to the Arctic Ocean or Baltic Sea, and those on the south side to the Black Sea or the Caspian, thus forming four distinct basins. The Arctic Ocean receives directly the Pechora, which drains chiefly the western slopes of the Ural Mountains by a number of important affluents, accumulates them into one great flood, which then flows almost due north, and empties itself into a wide estuary remarkable for the number of islands which the alluvial deposits of the river have formed within it. Through the White Sea, the Arctic Ocean receives the waters of the Mezen, Northern Dvina and Onega. The most important of the three is the Dvina, which receiving its supplies in nearly equal quantities from the east by the Vitchegda, and from the west by the Suchona, proceeds northwest in a circuitous course, continually augmented by large affluents, and falls into the Gulf of Archangel, a little below the well-known port of that name. The surface drained by the rivers of this basin is almost entirely confined to the two extensive governments of Archangel and Vologda. The basin next in order is that of the Baltic. Its principal rivers are the Kemi and Tornea (the latter common to both Russia and Sweden), which fall into the Gulf of Bothnia; the Kymmene, Neva, and Narva or Narowa, which fall into the Gulf of Finland; the Aa and Düna or Western Dvina, which fall into the Gulf of Riga; the Niemen or Memel, which enters East Prussia before terminating its course; and the West Bug, an affluent of the Vistula. To the basin of the Black Sea belong the Dniester, South Bug and Dnieper, which have all their mouths at a short distance from each other in the neighborhood of the rising seaport of Odessa; the Don, which falls into the northeast extremity of the Sea of Azov; and the Kuban, which derives its chief supplies from Circassia. The last basin, that of the Caspian, is in some respects the most remarkable of all, since, though Europe sends it only two large rivers, the Ural and the Volga, both supplied in part from Asiatic sources, the latter not only surpasses all other Russian rivers, but is one of the greatest of Europe. The lakes of Russia are on a scale of magnificence commensurate with that of the rivers. To say nothing of the Caspian, which, being wholly surrounded by land, and even incapable from the lowness of its level, of discharging itself into any other sea, is truly a lake-Russia has others of vast extent. To the basin of the Baltic belong Ladoga, the largest lake in