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Rh abounds in the district and is extensively quarried. The summer climate is the coolest in the Australian states.  WARSAW, a government of Russian Poland, occupying a narrow strip of land west of the lower Bug and west of the Vistula from its confluence with the Bug to the Prussian frontier. It is bounded by the Polish governments of Plock and Lomza on the N., Siedlce on the E., and Radom, Piotrkow and Kalisz on the S. Area 5605 sq. m.; estimated pop. (1906) 2,269,000. It occupies the great plain of central Poland, and is low and flat, with only a few hills in the south, and along the course of the Vistula in the north-west, where the terraces on the left bank descend by steep slopes to the river. Terrible inundations often devastate the region adjacent to the confluence of the Vistula with the Narew and Bug, and marshes gather in the low-lying grounds. The soil, which consists chiefly of boulder clay, lacustrine clays, and sandy fluviatile deposits, is not particularly fertile. The government is divided into thirteen districts, the chief towns of which are Warsaw, Błonie, Gostynin, Grojec, Kutno, Lowicz, Neszawa, Novo-Minsk, Plonsk, Radzymin, Skierniewice, Sochaczew and Wloclawek. In spite of the infertile soil, agriculture is prosecuted with considerable success. Manufacturing industries have also greatly developed.  WARSAW (Polish Warszawa, Ger. Warschau, Fr. Varsovie), the capital of Poland and chief town of the government of Warsaw. It is beautifully situated on the left bank of the Vistula, 387 m. by rail E. of Berlin, and 695 m. S.W. of St Petersburg. It stands on a terrace 120 to 130 ft. above the river, to which it descends by steep slopes, leaving a broad bench at its base. The suburb of Praga on the right bank of the Vistula, here 450 to 660 yds. broad, is connected with Warsaw by two bridges—the railway bridge which passes close under the guns of the Alexander citadel to the north, and the Alexander bridge (1666 ft. long; built in 1865 at a cost of £634,000) in the centre of the town. With its large population, its beautiful river, its ample communications and its commerce, its university and scientific societies, its palaces and numerous places of amusement, Warsaw is one of the most pleasant as well as one of the most animated cities of eastern Europe. From a military point of view Warsaw is the chief stronghold for the defence of Poland; the Alexander citadel has been much improved, and the bridge across the Vistula is defended by a strong fort, Sliwicki.

Situated in a fertile plain, on a great navigable river, below its confluence with the Pilica and Wieprz, which drain southern Poland, and above its confluence with the Narew and Bug, which tap a wide region in the east, Warsaw became in medieval times the chief entrepôt for the trade of those fertile and populous valleys with western Europe. Owing to its position in the territory of Mazovia, which was neither Polish nor Lithuanian, and, so to say, remained neutral between the two rival powers which constituted the united kingdom, it became the capital of both, and secured advantages over the purely Polish Cracow and the Lithuanian Vilna. And now, connected as it is by six trunk lines with Vienna, Kiev and south-western Russia, Moscow, St Petersburg, Danzig and Berlin, it is one of the most important commercial cities of eastern Europe. The south-western railway connects it with Lodz, the Manchester of Poland, and with the productive mineral region of Piotrkow and Kielce, which supply its steadily growing manufactures with coal and iron, so that Warsaw and its neighbourhood have become a centre for all kinds of manufactures. The iron and steel industry has greatly developed, and produces large quantities of rails. The machinery works have suffered to some extent from competition with those of southern Russia, and find the high price of land a great obstacle in the way of extension. But the manufactures of plated silver, carriages, boots and shoes (annual turnover £8,457,000), millinery, hosiery, gloves, tobacco, sugar, and all sorts of small artistic house decorations, are of considerable importance, chiefly owing to the skill of the workers. Trade is principally in the goods enumerated above, but the city is also a centre for trade in corn, leather and coal, and its two fairs (wool and hops) have a great reputation throughout western Russia. The wholesale deportations of Warsaw artisans after the Polish insurrections of 1794, 1831 and 1863 considerably checked, but by no means stopped, the industrial progress of the town. The barrier of custom-houses all round Poland, and the Russian rule, which militates against the progress of Polish science, technology and art, are so many obstacles to the development of its natural resources. The population has nevertheless grown rapidly, from 161,008 in 1860, 276,000 in 1872 and 436,750 in 1887, to 756,426 in 1901; of these more than 25,000 are Germans, and one-third are Jews. The Russian garrison numbers over 30,000 men. Warsaw is an archiepiscopal see of the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, and the headquarters of the V., VI. and XV. Army Corps.

The streets of Warsaw are adorned with many fine buildings, partly palaces exhibiting the Polish nobility's love of display, partly churches and cathedrals, and partly public buildings erected by the municipality or by private bodies. Fine public gardens and several monuments further embellish the city. The university (with 1500 students), founded in 1816 but closed in 1832, was again opened in 1869 as a Russian institution, the teaching being in Russian; it has a remarkable library of more than 500,000 volumes, rich natural history collections, a fine botanic garden and an astronomical observatory. The medical school enjoys high repute in the scientific world. The school of arts, the academy of agriculture and forestry, and the conservatory of music are all high-class institutions. The association of the friends of science and the historical and agricultural societies of Warsaw were once well known, but were suppressed after the insurrections, though they were subsequently revived.

The theatre for Polish drama and the ballet is a fine building, which includes two theatres under the same roof; but the pride of Warsaw is its theatre in the Lazienki gardens, which were laid out (1767–1788) in an old bed of the Vistula by King Stanislaus Poniatowski, and have beautiful shady alleys, artificial ponds, an elegant little palace with ceilings painted by Bacciarelli, several imperial villas and a monument (1788) to John Sobieski, king of Poland, who delivered Vienna from the Turks in 1683. Here an artificial ruin on an island makes an open-air theatre. Two other public gardens, with alleys of old chestnut trees, are situated in the centre of the city. One of these, the Saski Ogrod, or Saxon garden (17 acres), which has a summer theatre and fine old trees, is one of the most beautiful in Europe; it is the resort of the Warsaw aristocracy. The Krasinski garden is the favourite promenade of the Jews.

The central point of the life of Warsaw is the former royal castle (Zamek Królewski) on Sigismund Square. It was built by the dukes of Mazovia, enlarged by Sigismund III. (whose memorial stands opposite) and Ladislaus IV., and embellished by John Sobieski and Stanislaus Poniatowski. At present it is inhabited by the “governor-general of the provinces on the Vistula” (i.e. Poland), and by the military authorities. Most of its pictures and other art treasures have been removed to St Petersburg and Moscow. Four main thoroughfares radiate from it; one, the Krakowskie Przedmieście, the best street in Warsaw, runs southward. It is continued by the Nowy Świat and the Ujazdowska Aleja avenue, which leads to the Lazienki gardens. Many fine buildings are found in and near these two streets: the church of St Anne (1454), which belonged formerly to a Bernardine monastery; the agricultural and industrial museum, with an ethnographical collection; the monument (1898) to the national poet Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855); the Alexander Nevski cathedral of the Orthodox Greek Church, built in 1894 and following years on the Saxon Square in the Byzantine style, with five gilded cupolas and a detached campanile, 238 ft. high; close beside it the former Saxon palace, once the residence of the Polish kings but now used as military administrative offices; the Lutheran church, finished in 1799, one of the most conspicuous in Warsaw; a monument (1841) to the Polish generals who held with Russia in 1830 and were therefore shot by their compatriots, removed to the Zielony Square in 1898; the buildings of the Art Association, erected in 1898–1900; the university (see above); the church of the Holy Ghost (1682–1696), with the heart and monument of the musician F. F. Chopin; a monument (1830) to the astronomer N. Kopernicus (1473–1543); the palaces of the families Zamoyski and Ordynacki (now the conservatory of music); the building of the Philharmonic Society (1899–1901); and the church of St Alexander, built in 1826 and splendidly restored in 1891. The Ujazdowska Aleja avenue, planted with lime trees and bordered with cafés and places of amusement, is the Champs Élysées of Warsaw. It leads to the Lazienki park and to the Belvedere palace (1822), now the summer residence of the governor-general, and farther west to the Mokotowski parade ground, which is surrounded on the south and west by the manufacturing district. Another principal street, the Marszałkowska, runs parallel to the Ujazdowska from the Saxon garden to this parade ground, on the south-east of which are the Russian barracks. The above-mentioned streets are crossed by another series running west and east, the chief of them being the Senators, which begins at Sigismund Square and contains the best shops. The palace of the archbishop of Warsaw, the Imperial (Russian) Bank, formerly the Bank of Poland; the town hall (1725),