Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/543

Rh N I J N I-N V G R D 501 and Oka on the right. These and their numerous tributaries offer great facilities both for navigation and for the transit of timber. Very numerous lakes dot the government, especially in the north ; and one-third of its entire surface is still covered with forests, which occupy nearly the whole of the Zavoljie (to the north of the Volga), and extend without a break for 50 and 80 miles to the west and south-west. The climate is severe, especially in the Zavoljie, where the average yearly temperature is 5 6 Fahr. lower than at Nijni. The population in 1880 reached 1,376,000; they are mostly Great-Russians, Mordvinians (50,600), and Tartars (42,650) ; the Tcheremisses numbered 5630, and the Jews about 1500. Of the total, 1,266,550 belong to the Greek Church, 63,850 (probably much understated) are registered as Old Believers and Raskolniks, 42,650 are Mohammedans, 750 Protestants, and 740 Catholics. The urban population is only 101,000. The yearly increase of the population is estimated at 43 per cent., and the mortality at 47 per 1000. The chief occupation of the inhabitants is agriculture, but only 38 per cent, of the area is under crops. Cattle breeding is falling off rapidly, and in 1880 there were only 229,000 horses (as against 326,000 in 1848 and 264,000 in 1865), 232,000 horned cattle, 444,000 sheep (585,000 in 1865), and 74,000 pigs. Kitchen- gardens are a source of income in several districts. Agriculture, on the whole, has to contend with great difficulties on account of the climate, the soil, and the small allotments of land. A variety of petty trades carried on by the peasantr have accordingly developed in the vil- lages ; of these cutlery is the chief, no less than 6000 families being engaged in that industry at Pavlovo and Vorsma. In other parts of the govern ment the peasants make felt and woollen wares, leather wares and harness, iron- wire and sieves, &c. ; each village has its own specialty, being renowned for its felt shoes, or for its gloves, its fine scales, and so on. The chief occupa tion, however, is the manufacture of wooden wares, sledges, wheels, dishes and spoons, window frames, boxes, &c., which are exported in large quantities to the governments of the lower Volga, and even to Bokhara and Persia. The manufactures are rapidly developing. In 1880 there were 465 factories (prin cipally machine-works, steam flour- mills, iron and steel works, naphtha distilleries, cutlery and copper works, tanneries, and rope-works), employing about 20,000 work-people, and producing goods to the value of more than 15,000,000 roubles (8,840,000 in 1876); the production of the distilleries amounted to 4,540,000. The building of boats and steamers is also a considerable source of income. A very large proportion of the population fails to find the means of self-support within the province, and every year no fewer than 100,000 to 117,000 persons leave their villages and go in search of labour as far as St Petersburg and Astrakhan. Trade in corn, salt, timber, leather, iron, and all kinds of manufactured ware is well developed in all towns of the government, and there are important fairs at several places. The educational institutions are few, and, on the whole, except among the Kaskolniks, education stands at a very low level. The government is divided into eleven districts, having as their chief towns Nijni-Novgorod (50,000 inhabitants), Ardatoff (3500), Arzamas (10,500), Ealakhna (4000), Gorbatoff (3000), Knyaghinin (2500), Lukoyanoff (10,000), Makarieff (2000), Seme- noff (3000), Sergach (4000), and Vasilsursk (3000). The other towns are Perevoz (1000) and Pochinki (7500) ; the two villages Pavlovo (about 10,000) and Vorsma (4000) are important manu facturing centres. NiJNi-NovGOROD, or simply NIJNI or NIJNIY, capital of the above government, is situated at the confluence of the Oka and Volga, 276 miles by rail to the east of Moscow. It occupies a most advantageous position on the great artery of Russian trade, at a place where the manufactured and agricultural products of the basin of the Oka meet with the metal wares from that of the Kama, the corn and salt brought from the south-eastern provinces, the produce of the Caspian fisheries, and the various wares imported from Siberia, Central Asia, Caucasus, and Persia. It has thus become the seat of the great Makarievskaya fair, and one of the chief commercial centres of Russia. Its importance has still further increased during the last twenty years in consequence of the growth of manufactures in the Oka basin, the rapid development of steamboat traffic on the Volga and its tributaries, the extension of the Russian railway system, and the opening of Central Asia for trade. Nijni-Novgorod consists of three parts : the upper city, including the Kremlin ; the lower town, or Nijni Bazaar ; and &quot; the Fair,&quot; with the suburb Kunavina. The upper city covers three hills, which rise as steep crags to a height of 400 feet (490 feet above sea-level) on the right banks of both the Oka and the Volga. The Kremlin, or old fort, occupies one of these hills facing the Volga. It was erected in the beginning of the 16th century, on the site of the old palisaded fort, and has a wall 2300 yards long, with eleven towers; it contains the law- courts, the governor s residence, the arsenal, barracks, the military gymnasium of Count Arakche eff, transferred from Novgorod, and two cathedrals, Preobrajenski and Arkhangelsk!. These were erected in 1225 and 1222 respectively, and have been rebuilt more than once ; the present structures, in somewhat poor taste, date from Plan of Nijni-Novgorod. 1834 and 1732. The Preobrajenski cathedral, however, retains several relics of the past, such as a holy picture of 1380, and a Bible of 1404 ; Minin, the hero of Nijni, lies buried there. The Kremlin is adorned with a square, containing a monument to Minin and Pojarsky erected in 1826, and pretty boulevards have been laid out along its lower wall. The view from the Kremlin of the broad Volga, with its low-lying and far-spreading left bank, is very charming. The Pechorsky monastery, close by, is archceologically interesting ; it was built in the first half of the 16th century, instead of the old monastery founded in 1330 and destroyed by a land-slip, and has several antiquities and a library with very valuable MSS, Another monastery, contemporary with the foundation of Nijni, that of Blagovyeschensk, is situated on the right bank of the Oka. Its old churches have been destroyed by fire, but it has a very ancient holy picture probably the oldest in Russia dating from 933, which attracts many pilgrims. Besides the Kremlin, the upper town contains the best streets and public buildings. Five descents lead from it to the lower town, which covers the alluvial terrace, 30 to 35 feet in height, on the banks of the Oka and Volga, and is the centre of a very lively