Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/74

 K H E K H I territory. Along the shore lie a number of extensive lagoons. Chalk, saltpetre, salt, sandstone, and a lime stone conglomerate largely used for building are the principal minerals. Besides the ordinary cereals, maize, hemp, flax, tobacco, and mustard are pretty commonly grown ; the fruit trees of general cultivation include the cherry, the plum, the peach, and the mulberry ; and gardening receives a large amount of attention. The agricultural condition of the government has been greatly improved by the presence of numerous German colonies. Cattle-breeding, horse-breeding, and sheep farming are pursued on a large scale. Some of the sheep farmers have as many as 30,000 or 40,000 merinos, and only a very small proportion of the 2,500,000 sheep in the govern ment are of unimproved varieties. The value of the total industrial production has been estimated at upwards of .2,500,000, the more important departments being the manufacture of wool, hemp, leather, and flour. The ports of Kherson, Otchakoff, Nikolaieff, and more especially Odessa are among the great outlets of Russian commerce ; and Berislaff, Alexandriya, Elizabethgrad, Voznesensk, Olviopol, and Tiraspol play an important part in the inland traffic. In 1871 the total population of the government was 1,661,892 ; and besides Great and Little Russians it comprised Roumanians, Servians, Poles, Greeks, Germans, Gipsies, while no fewer than 44,107 were returned as Roman Catholics, 48,902 as Protestants, 3183 as Arme nians, and 128,312 as Jews. There are six administrative districts Alexandriya, Ananieff, Elizabethgrad, Kherson, Odessa, and Tiraspol. The towns with more than 5000 inhabitants are Odessa (184,820 in 1873), Nikolaieff (82,800), Elizabethgrad (35,200), Tiraspol (16,700), Ananieff (16,000), Alexandriya (10,520), Novo-Georgievsk or Kruiloff (10,225), Voznesensk (9450), Berislaff (8080), Bobrinetz (7150), Gregoriopol, Dubosarui, Novo-Mirgorod, Olviopol, and Otchakoff. KHERSON, the chief town of the above government, is situated on the right bank of the Dnieper, about 19 miles from its mouth. Founded by Prince Potemkin in 1778 as a naval station and seaport, it had become by 1786 a place of 10,000 inhabitants, and, although its progress was checked by the rise of Odessa and the removal (in 1794) of the naval establishments to Nicolaieff, it has still a popu lation of more than 46,000. The Dnieper at this point breaks up into several arms, forming islands overgrown with reeds and bushes ; it is difficult to maintain a deep navigable channel, and vessels of burden must anchor at Stanislavskoe Selo, a good way down the stream. Of the traffic on the river the largest share is due to the timber trade, and wool-dressing is the only extensive local in dustry. Kherson is a substantial and regular town. The cathedral is interesting as the burial-place of Potemkin, and near the church of the Assumption lie the remains of John Howard, the English philanthropist. The fortifications have fallen into decay. The name Kherson was given to the town from the supposition that the site had formerly been that of Chersonesus Heracleotica, the famous Greek city founded by the Dorians of Heraclea. KHIVA, an independent Uzbeg khanate of Turkestan, which occupies the fertile oasis stretching in a band of varying width along the left bank of the lower Oxus between Pitniak and the Sea of Aral. The inhabited dis trict, which lies between 41 and 43 N. lat., and 59 and 61 30 E. long., and practically forms the limits of the khanate, is about 200 miles in length and has an average breadth of 25 to 30 miles an area therefore of some 5000 to 6000 square miles. This tract of territory is but a meagre relic of the great kingdom which under the name of Chorasmia, Kharezm (Klrwarizm), or Urgentch held the keys of the mightiest river in Central Asia, and formed in consequence a precious jewel for rivalry among Eastern potentates from an early period of the world s history. Great alterations, geogra phically and politically, have taken place since those times. The Oxus has changed its outlet, and no longer forms a water-way to the Caspian and thence to Europe. A great European power has arisen which has made gradual but important encroachments in Asia, and between this power on the north and the independent Turcoman tribes on the south the authority of the khan of Khiva has been dwarfed and circumscribed within the narrow limits above indicated. From the establishment of the Russians on the lower Jaxartes in 1847 dates the decline in power of the khan of Khiva. Prior to that year the khan claimed sovereignty from the Caspian on the west to the confines of Khokand and Bokhara on the east, and from the northern margin of the Ust Urt and the Jaxartes on the north to the mountain range forming the Persian frontier on the south, including Merv. Within these limits his authority was recognized, although towards the extremities this was merely nominal. Since that year the Russians have annexed the country between the lower Jaxartes and Oxus, established the large trans-Caspian military district on the east shore of the Caspian, and conquered the Akhal Tekke country, thereby hemming in the Khivans on all sides. The Russians have, moreover, by imposing a large indemnity (two millions of roubles) for the campaign of 1873, so crippled the finances of the state that the khan, though nominally independent, is in reality a vassal and in a state of complete subjection to his more powerful neighbours. A Russian military force now watches the khanate from Forts Petro-Alexandrovsk and Nukus on the right bank of the Oxus, the former fort being within 35 miles of the capital. History. It would be impossible to trace here, even in the briefest manner, the changes through which Kharezm has passed, under the successive waves of migration and conquest which have swept across the country in ancient and historic times. The present insignificance and the eventual disappearance of the khanate from the map of Turkestan in the near future being intimately connected with the extension eastward of Russia, it will be more profitable to trace its history after its first connexion with that power. Russia commenced her relations with Khiva in the 17th century. The warlike Cossacks of the Yaik during their raids across the Caspian learnt of the existence of the rich territory of Khiva, and made an expedition to the chief town, Urgentch, at a time when the khan and his troops were absent. They carried off a large number of women and a rich booty, but were overtaken on their road home by the Khivans and killed to a man. Two subsequent expeditions under Atamans Nechai and Shemai proved equally disastrous to the Cossacks. These three expedi tions were simply the raids of freebooters. In 1717, how ever, Peter the Great, having heard of the presence of auriferous sand in the bed of the Oxus, and desiring also to &quot; open mercantile relations with India through Turan &quot; and to release from slavery some Russian subjects, sent a properly equipped military force to Khiva. The com mand of the expedition, which consisted of 3300 men and six guns, with three months provisions, was entrusted to Prince Bekovitch Tcherkassky. After establishing a forti fied base of operations on the east shore of the Caspian, Bekovitch collected his forces at the mouth of the Ural and thence marched across the Ust Urt into Khivan territory. When within 100 miles of the capital he was encountered by the forces of the khan. The battle lasted three days, and ended in victory for the Russian arms. The Khivans, however, induced the victors to break up their force into small detachments in order to facilitate supply,