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CAUCASUS

Akhaltsykh, &c.), of leather (saddlery decorated girdles, &c.)„ Tertiary, and Glacial deposits, and is deeply ravined by and also the making of various sorts of oil, and so on. rivers. Mountain ranges, which have their bases on the TransNorth surface of the plateau, and reach altitudes of from 8000 caucasia. 18 9 6. Caucasia. to 9500 ft., and occasionally more, intersect it in various directions j while huge Trachitic masses, such as the A. White Race. Alaghoz (13,436 ft.) and the Ararat (17,212 ft.), rise above its undulating and ravined surface. The climate I. Indo-Europeans. 122,257 2,795,122 is severe on the plateau and very hot in the deeper valleys. Slavonians: Russians . 3,735 10,598 Poles Thus, even at Erivan (40° 15' N.), at an altitude of 3230 ft., 9,356 25,267 Germans . . • • the averages are as low as these : year 51 Fahr., January 1,224 Romans (French, Moldavians) 55,507 16°, July 75°; and at higher altitudes the winters are Greeks . • 10,687 2,381 still more severe. The yearly amount of rain is only from Iranians: Persians 175,193 Tates, Talyshins. 9 to 24 inches. The population consists of Armenians, 76,445 90,000 Ossets Tatars, Turks, Kurds, Turkomans, and Russians, who do 100,043 Kurds 239,131 not number, however, more than 15,000. Cattle-breeding 31,525 Armenians . . . • 725 and some agriculture are carried on on the plateau, wdiile Hindus (Tsiganes) cotton, rice, and all sorts of fruit are grown in the deeper II. Semites. valleys. As to the Lenkoran district, which lies on the 34,386 7,812 Jews . . • • • slopes of the Azerbaijan plateau, its climate is extremely 2,372 Aisors (Chaldeans) warm and moist. The temperature of the coldest month III. Caucasians. is 37° at Lenkoran, and the yearly amount of rain exceeds 40 inches. 1. Kartvelians or Iberes : (а) Georgians: The population of Caucasia has been rapidly increasing, and it 381,208 4,473 Georgians proper reached, in 1897, 9,248,695 (4,891,054 men and 4,357,641 women), Tushins, Pshaves, Khev whom 996,248 lived in towns. Of this population, 23,663 Population. 3of}7g§ zurs, and Mtiulians }784 lived in the three North Caucasian provinces 423,201 Imeretians and 5 461,911 in Transcaucasia (including Daghestan). The popu76,095 Gurians lation belongs to a great variety of stems, but it has been proved y 68,343 Ajars, Enghilois modern ethnological research, especially by Baron Uslar, Seine in ei, 213,030 (б) Mingrelians . and Zagursky, that the former opinion as to the existence ol 150 1,781 (c) Lazes or 300 different nationalities was exaggerated. Many ol the 14,035 {d) Svanetians . languages that are spoken in different parts of the Caucasus have 60,445 2. Western Mountaineers : Abhazes proved0 to be but local dialects of a few distinct languages 3,971 183,516 Kabardians, &c Accordino- to the classification established by Baron Uslar and 3. Eastern Mountaineers : Zagursky° the different nationalities of Caucasia may be classed 917 282,504 Chechens .... as they are given in the table on this page. Lezghian branches: Most of the Russians and the Georgians with the exception of the 194,918 Avars and Andians group Moslem Lazes, belong to the Greek Orthodox Church (4,0/6, L 3 123,756 Dargo group. according to estimates for 1886-97); but considerable numbers ot 173,328 Kyurin ,, the former are Nonconformists of different denominations (121,824, Undetermined kinship with the but probably much more). The Armenians, with the exception o 96,731 above groups a small number of Catholics (34,008), are Gregonans (979,566. 7,301 Udines The mountaineers, as also the Turks and the Tatars, are nearly all Sunnite Mussulmans (2,021,334), and the Persians Shiite MussulB. Mongolian Race. mans (884,131), while the Mongols are Buddhists (20,311), and the Kurds’are Yezids (14,979). _ I. Turkish Stem. The movement of population m 1897 was, 350,457 births (3 9 1,139,659 Azerbaijan Tatars 70,226 per cent.), and 226,295 deaths (2-5 per cent.), showing thus an Turks increase of 1 "4 per cent. (124,162). _ . ., ... , 8,893 Turkomans Agriculture is the main occupation of the settled inhabitants, 24,134 Karapapakhs (Black Bonnets) and cattle-breeding among the nomads. The total crops for 1897 2,556 45,000 Nogais . . . • 19,000 were • 9 322,000 quarters of wheat and other cereals in Northern Trukhmens (Turkomans ?) . Caucasia, and 11,910,000 quarters in Transcaucasia, it being 60,838 31,519 Kumyks . . . • estimated that in an average year Caucasia has an available surplus of 3,000,000 tons of cereals. The yearly crop of raw II. Mongols. cotton (chiefly Armenian), grown mostly in Eastern Transcaucasia, 10,000 Kalmycks . . • • is estimated at 10,000 tons, and of tobacco at 36,000,000 lbs Various sorts of grass (rye-grass, lucerne, &c.) are widely cultivated III. Finnish Stems. in Transcaucasia, and nearly 60 cwts. of madder are obtained. 1,382 Esthonians, Mordovians The culture of melons and water-melons, as also of the sunflower (for oil), is widely spread ; and it is estimated that nearly 54,000 3,519,717 4,020,472 acres are under vineyards in North Caucasia and 2/8,000 acies Total in Transcaucasia, giving an aggregate of 30,000,000 gallons of wine. Gardening is brought to a high degree of perfection, and 7,540,189 Total, Caucasus the silkworm is bred so as to obtain every year over 100,000 cwts of cocoons and to give occupation to about twenty steam silk unwinding mills and great numbers of small native ones The mining industry is rapidly growing in importance Copper gathering of the liquorice root (about 600,000 cwt ), of laurel leaves, oreThe is extracted in the governments of Tiflis, Ehsabethpol, hutals> &c., is worthy of notice. The culture of the tea-tree has been and Erivan (85,000 tons of ore, 2700 tons of copper in 189/), silver ore in Terek, Kuban, and Kutais (8500 tons) ; iron ore m 111 TheUprairies and stePPes of both, N’ortheni Caucasia and Trans- Elisabethpol to a small extent ; and manganese ore m Kutais caucasia are stocked with live stock, and ^ (230 000 tons); also some cobalt, sulphur, and quicksilver, ine horses 124 360 donkeys and mules, 5,883,000 horned cattle, KSn of coal in Kuban and Kutaia is still m its mfan«y 14 100,000 sheep, 960,000 swine, and 24,400 camels. (22,000 tons). Naphtha, on the contrary, is obtained in very larg In their domestic trades many of the inhabitants of Caucasia, and ever-growing quantities (6,854,000 tons in Baku 295,000 including the mountaineers, attainharact a very high degree of perfecin Terek, 2320 tons in Kuban, and 450 tons m Tiflis and tion? and° their produce is mostly ? TZedj3y%hJ?h:fntCt tons Daghestan). About 241,000 tons of rock salt m Envan an taste Carpets, woollen cloth, various goods made out of the finest Kars, and from 10,000 to 18,000 tons of lake salt, are extractea goat wool, and the burkas, or Circassian fur cloaks are among the chief items Next come various goods made out of wood and ^Thetedustries are represented by 26,811 factories and workshops,. meSls “mall arms in Daghestan, chiselled silver work at