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.

3

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

4

Europe; Onega, Peipus and Ilmen. Almost all the other lakes of any size belong to the basin of the Volga; chief of these are the BieloOzero, in the government of Novgorod, and the Koubinsköe, in the government of Vologda. In the south are several large salt lakes, among them the Elton and the Khaki Salt Marsh, in the Government of Astrakhan.

Geology. A vast tract of gneiss and other crystalline schists, penetrated by granite, extends east from the Gulf of Bothnia, and north from the Gulf of Finland over the whole principality of the latter name, the western part of the government of Olonets, and the extensive part of the government of Archangel which is isolated from its main body by the White Sea. The only other region where a similar development occurs is in the south, where a large granitic steppe stretches in a southeast direction. It begins near Ovrutch, in the northeast of the government of Volhynia, covers the far greater part of the government of Kiev, as much of the government of Podolsk as lies north of the Bug, the northern half of the government of Kherson, the west and south of Ekaterinoslav, and a part of Taurida, and terminates in Ukraine just before reaching the shores of the Sea of Azov, from which it is excluded by a narrow belt of Tertiary marls and limestone. In the east, however, and along the whole crest of the Ural Mountains, from their commencement on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and almost continuously southward to their last ramifications, granite of more recent origin than that already mentioned occurs, in connection with other eruptive rocks of greenstone, porphyry, syenite, serpentine, etc. These rocks are overlain on both sides of the chain by metamorphic schists, forming long and narrow belts nearly parallel with its principal axis. Immediately to the west appears a similar belt of Silurian strata, which, where lowest in the series, is in the state of chloritic and talcose schists. The only other locality where the Silurian system receives a marked development is on the southern shores of the Gulf of Finland, where it stretches from its western extremity east along the governments of Esthonia and Petrograd, and is then continued across the isthmus between the eastern extremity of the gulf and Lake Ladoga, and along the southern and southeastern shores of that lake. In immediate contact with this Silurian formation on the south, but on a much more magnificent scale of development, appears the Devonian system, or Old Red Sandstone. The main body of this formation begins near the southeastern shores of the Baltic, and gradually widens out with its northeastern and southeastern sides, so as to assume the shape of a wedge. It then forms a wide fork, sending one of its branches northeast across Lake Onega, and along Archangel Bay to the northwestern extremity of Mezen Bay, and the other southeast to the northwestern frontiers of Voronezh. It thus covers continuously the whole of the governments of Kurland, Livonia, Vitebsk and Pskof, and parts of Vilna, Minsk, Mohilef and Smolensk, on the one side, and of Petrograd and Novgorod on the other; while its northeast branch traverses Olonets, and penetrates into Archangel; and its southeast branch stretches over considerable parts of Kaluga, Orel and Tula. The only other localities in which the same formation occurs

is as a belt stretching south-southeast from the eastern coast of the Gulf of Tcheskaia in the Arctic Ocean, and in a longer but narrower belt on the western side of the Ural chain, where it immediately overlies the Silurian formation already mentioned. The formation next in order is the Carboniferous. The main body of it lies within the above fork of the Old Red Sandstone, and in immediate contact with it, and then keeping parallel with the northeast branch of the fork, is continued in the same direction to its termination in Mezen Bay. It occupies the whole of the government of Tver, the capital of which is situated near its centre; and large parts of Smolensk, Kaluga, Tula and Riazan on the one side, and of Novgorod and Olonets on the other. The government of Moscow is situated in the very heart of it, and that of Vladimir on its eastern side. It is evidently continued beneath these governments and covers part of their surface, the other and far greater part being covered by oolite or Jura limestone. The Carboniferous system occurs in two other distant and isolated localities; the one in the south, a little north of the Sea of Azov, where it occupies the eastern part of the government of Ekaterinoslav, and the western extremity of that of Don Cossacks, and where, too, the coal forming the characteristic mineral of the system is partially worked by pits; the other locality is on the western side of the Ural chain, where, in the ascending series, it succeeds the Silurian and Devonian systems, and has a larger development than either of them. This development of the Carboniferous system on the side of the Ural chain, and the still larger development above described as existing in the governments of Smolensk, Kaluga, etc., forms the opposite boundaries of a system which in European Russia is highly developed; and to which from the large space which it covers in Perm and the contiguous governments, the name of the Permian system has been given. Its rocks belong to the upper part of the coal measures and consist chiefly of magnesian limestone and new red sandstone. The latter name is still often applied to the whole system. The Permian system extends over the governments of Kostroma, Viatka and Kazan, and large parts of Archangel, Vologda, Yaroslav, NijniNovgorod, Simbirsk, Orenburg and Perm. In the north of the governments of Kostroma and Viatka, and more especially in the part of Vologda between the towns of Nikolsk and UstSisolsk, it disappears for a time beneath strata belonging to the Jurassic or oolitic system. This system is developed partially in several other localities, and very largely in the northeast of the government of Archangel. Immediately above it in the geological series is the Cretaceous system, of which the principal localities are Chernigov, Orel, Kursk, Kharkov, and Voronezh, near the centre; Volhynia and a small part of Poland in the west; and a long tract along the northern base of the Caucasus. The rocks next in succession belong to the Tertiary formation, which in both its Eocene and Miocene periods is very largely developed. Strata of the Eocene period, beginning in the east in the government of Simbirsk, stretch west over the greater part of the governments of Penza and Tambov, then, after a considerable interruption, reappear on the frontiers of Kursk and Kharkov, cover the far greater part

of the governments of Chernigov and Poltava, and are thence continued without interruption into the governments of Mohilev, Minsk and Grodno. The Miocene period has its chief developments in Volhynia, Podolsk and Bessarabia. Beds of still more recent formation may be traced in the limestones, marls and clays on the northwestern shores of the Black Sea, on the far greater part of the Peninsula of the Crimea, on the eastern and northern shores of the Sea of Azov, on the low flats along the western and northern shores of the Caspian, and the low, sandy steppes of Astrakhan. Mere alluvial deposits, of comparatively recent date, are to be found in a greater or less degree at the mouths of all the rivers, and are particularly discernible in the great estuary of the Pechora. Vast numbers of erratic blocks and similar drift are spread over the greater part of northern Russia, evidently transported from Finland, Lapland and Sweden.

Climate. As the country extends over 35 degrees of latitude, from the warmer regions of the temperate far into the regions of the frozen zone, it exhibits several marked diversities of climate, usually considered in four divisions a polar region, including all the country north of lat. 67°; a cold region, extending from lat. 67° to 57° N.; a temperate region, from lat. 57° to 50° N.; and a warm region, from lat. 50° to 37° N. The characteristic features of the climate in general are a greater coldness and variableness than is common under the same latitudes in the more westerly parts of Europe. The mean annual temperature of the upper part of the Norwegian Coast to its extremity at the North Cape is above the freezing point, whereas a considerable portion of Russia within the same, and even in a lower latitude, is below it. This is true of the whole of Russian Lapland as far south as 66°; and to the east of the White Sea the thermal line, indicating a mean annual temperature of freezing, descends so rapidly that on reaching the Ural Mountains it is found to be as low as 60°. The region to which the name of cold has been given has a mean annual temperature varying between 32° and 40°, but very unequally divided throughout the year, the cold in winter often sinking the thermometer to 30° below zero, or 62° below freezing, while the summer heat often raises it above 80°. At Petrograd considerably below the centre of this region, the mean annual temperature is rather above 40°; on the other hand, that of Kazan, situated at the very south extremity of the region, but much farther inland, is rather below 36°. The temperate region, situated between lat. 57° and 50° N., has a mean annual temperature varying from 40° to 50°, and includes within it the far finest part of the Russian territory, though even there the thermometer has a very wide range, the summer heat, which suffices to grow melons and similar fruits in the open field, being often succeeded by very rigorous winters. The warm region, extending from 50° southward, well merits the name from its extreme summer heats, the thermometer in June and July standing commonly about 100°, and often considerably higher. It is not, however, free from the remarkable contrasts which a Russian summer and a Russian winter exhibit; for the Sea of Azov, situated almost in the heart of this region, usually freezes about the beginning of

5

November and is seldom open again before the beginning of April. In all the countries bordering on the shores of the Baltic Sea and the Arctic Ocean, and bounded on the west and north by the basin of the Volga, the air is charged with a superabundance of moisture, which descends in mists and frequent falls of rain or snow. Toward the centre, and still farther east, the superabundance of moisture disappears, though enough still remains to keep vegetation in full vigor even at the hottest season. Still farther south the want of rain is often felt and long-continued droughts do frequent mischief. In general, however, the climates of all the regions are not unfavorable to health.

The

Forestry and Flora.- Forests are found chiefly in the more northern districts, particularly Archangel, Vologda and Perm, and cover about 39 per cent of the total area of European Russia. In many of the central and southern governments a deficiency of timber is seriously felt and many extraordinary expedients are resorted to in order to obtain adequate supplies of fuel. The districts most imperfectly provided with wood are Esthonia, Bessarabia, Kherson, Ekaterinoslav and Astrakhan. prevailing trees of the northern forests are fir, larch, alder and birch. The oak is seldom found beyond lat. 61°. A considerable proportion of the surface still continues almost in a state of nature; and, where it is well wooded, it is a question whether any other mode of occupation would be equally productive. Russia possesses about 3,400 species of phanerogamous plants, but the examination which botanists have made is incomplete and it is probable that many remain to be discovered.

The forest area of European Russia covers a territory of 474,000,000 acres. In the Ural Mountain region forests cover 70 per cent of the total area. In 1917 the revenues derived from the state forests amounted to 111,206,000 roubles (about $55,603,000); the expenses amounted to 41,592,000 roubles ($20,796,000), leaving a net profit of 69,614,000 roubles ($34,807,000).

Fauna.-Animals, both domestic and wild, are numerous in Russia. Among the latter are the bear, the wolf, wild hog, the desman, the mole-rat, the saiga, the bobak or Russian marmot, the elk, the bison, the lynx and various animals which are hunted for their furs. Wild fowl abound, particularly near the mouths of rivers; among them the pelican frequents the shores of the Black Sea. Both on the coasts and in the rivers a great number of productive fisheries are carried on. In the Arctic Ocean whales are killed and vast numbers of seals are taken. The rivers of the Caspian, particularly the Ural and Volga, and the Sea of Azov, are celebrated for their sturgeon. In the same quarters are also important salmon fisheries. Reptiles are few and mostly innocuous.

Land Tenure.- Under the empire the political divisions of the Russian people comprised numerous grades of nobility, which were partly hereditary and partly acquired by military and civil service, especially the former, military rank being most highly prized. The clergy, both regular and secular, formed a separate privileged order. The higher clergy were formerly possessed of great wealth, but much of their property was confiscated by Catherine II, who compensated them by state pensions. Pre