Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/576

 550 PERM in the hilly tracts of the north. No less than 45,750,000 acres are forest; of this large area only 2,175,600 acres are under proper forest administration. The forests are distributed very unequally, covering 95 per cent, of the area in the north, and only 25 per cent, in the south-east. Fir (Abies sibirica, Picea obovata), pine (Finns sylvestris), cedar (Pinus Cembm), larch (L. sibirica), birch, alder (Alnus), and lime are the most common woods ; the oak appears only in the south-west. The flora of Perm (956 Phanero gams) presents a mixture of Siberian and Russian species, several of which have their north-eastern or south-western limits within the government. The climate is severe, the average temperature at different places being as follows : Lat. X. ^titude. J-g January average. July average. i Feet. ; Fahr. Fahr. Fahr. Bogoslovsk 59 45 630 ! 29 -3 3 62 6 Usolie (Kama)... 59 25 300 i 34 4 -5 : 63 8 Nijne-Taghilsk I 57 55 590 ! 33 -1 2 64-9 Ekaterinburg ... 56 48 890 32 &quot;9 2 -5 63&quot; 5 The population in 1881 amounted to 2,520,100, of which number 106,500 lived in towns. It consisted chiefly of Great Russians, Bashkirs (about 100,000, including Mescheryaks and Teptyars), about 65,000 Permyaks or Permians, 25,000 Tatars, 8000 Tchere- misses, and some 2500 Voguls. More than a million of the Great Russians are Nonconformists, their number having rapidly increased within the last twenty years. Except in the northern districts, which are covered with marshes and tundras, and in a zone 70 miles wide, which includes the higher and stony parts of the Ural .Mountains to the north of the 58th parallel, agriculture is the general occupation of the inhabitants, who are favoured with a very fertile soil in the southern districts. Nevertheless, only 8,000,000 acres are under crops, the proportion of arable land ranging from 2 to 34 per cent, of the area in different districts. Rye, oats, barley, and hemp are raised in all parts, and wheat, millet, buckwheat, and flax in the south. The average crops in recent years have been 4,198,000 quarters of grain and 1,866,400 bushels of potatoes. Cattle-breeding is specially developed in the south-east among the Bashkirs, who have large numbers of horses, but is at present decreasing. In 1881 there were 837,000 horses, 820,000 horned cattle, 1,055,000 sheep, and 267,000 pigs. These figures vary, however, from year to year, in consequence of the murrains that periodically destroy great numbers of horses and cattle. Agriculture is widely spread among the Bashkirs, Teptyars, and Tcheremisses, and the chase is still a source of wealth, especially among the Voguls. Shipbuilding is developed on the Kama, Vishera (a tribut ary of the Kama), Sylva, and Tchusovaya ; and large amounts of timber, pitch, and tar, as also wooden implements, are exported to the Volga. Some 100,000 hands find occupation in connexion with the mining industry, and a number are engaged in the transport trade to and from Siberia, or in shipping. Mining increases every year, especially since private enterprise has been allowed to develop freely. In 1879 the total production of metals on the mining- works of the crown and of private individuals was (in cwts. ) : gold, 102 7; copper, 12,913; pig-iron, 4,457,000 ; iron, 2,704,000; steel, 599,600; salt, 3,750,000. The working of coal, although recent, promises to be most valuable. In 1865 the aggregate of all manu factures connected with mining hardly exceeded 15,000,000 roubles (1,500,000) in value. In 1879 it was : copper, 879,800 roubles ; pig-iron, 14,076,000 ; iron, 9,077,900 ; and steel, 2,218,000. The aggregate of other manufactures, employing 7400 hands, in the same year reached 20,962,000 roubles, against 5,802,000 in 1S65. The first place is taken by flour- mills (973,500), followed by distil leries (566,500) and tanneries (212,300) ; next in order come the manufactures of spirits, saddlery, woollen cloth, ropes, oils, cakes, paper, chemicals, candles, tallow, soap, matches, wax-candles, glass, pottery, &c. The cutting of precious stones is extensively carried on throughout the villages on the eastern slope of the Ural Moun tains, the chief market for them being at Ekaterinburg. Besides, a variety of petty trades are carried on, the manufacture of carpets in the south-east (Tumen carpets), as also that of boots at Kungur, being especially worthy of mention. An active trade, greatly favoured by the easy communication of the chief centres of the mining industry with the great market of Xijni Novgorod on the one side and with the great network of Siberian rivers on the other, is carried on in metals and metal wares, minerals, timber and wooden wares, tallow, skins, cattle, furs, corn, and linseed. Large caravans descend the affluents of the Kama ev ^ry spring, and reach the great fairs of Laisheff and Nijni Novgorod, or descend the Volga to Samara and Astrakhan ; while Ekaterinburg is an important centre for the trade with Siberia. The fair at Irbit, second in importance only to that of Nijni Novgorod, is a great centre for supplying Siberia with grocery and manufactured wares, as also for the purchase of tea, of furs for Russia, and of corn and cattle for the mining districts. About 180 other fairs are held every year within the government. The chief commercial centres are Ekaterinburg, Irbit, Perm, Kamyshloff. Shadrinsk, Tcherdyn, and several iron-works (Mvodij). Perm is more largely provided with educational institutions anil primary schools than most of the governments of central Russia. Besides the usual lyceum and ecclesiastical seminary at Perm, there are a mining school at Ekaterinburg and lower mining schools at Bogoslovsk and Kushva, and two lyceums for women at Perm and Ekaterinburg. The number of primary schools in 1881 was 621 (39,773 scholars, including about 8000 girls). The Nonconformists are very diligent in teaching reading (in Old Slavonian) to their girls. The Ural Society of Naturalists, at Ekaterinburg, issues valuable scientific serials, and there are within the government two first-rate meteorological and magnetic observatories, at Ekater inburg and Bogoslovsk. Perm is divided into twelve districts having for their chief towns (with populations in 1879) Perm (32,350), Kungur (14,000), Krasnoufimsk (3700), Okhansk (1650), Osa (2850), Solikamsk (16,900), and Tcherdyn (3260) in Europe ; Ekaterinburg (25,150), Irbit (4250), Kamyshloff (2160), Shadrinsk (11,550), and Ver- khoturie (8900) in Asia. Alapaevsk (5450), Dalmatoll (4350), and Dedyukhin (3900, with important salt-works) have also municipal institutions. The iron- works form the following important towns: Nijne-Taghilsk (30,000 in 1881), Neviansk (14,000), Kyshtym (12,350), Revdinsk (9950), Upper and Lower Turinsk (9750), Nyazepetrovsk (9000), Verkh - Issetskii (7000), Nijne-Issetskii, Sysertskii (5900), Bogoslovsk (4500), Verkhne-Taghilsk (3850), and Suksunsk (3150). The salt-works of Usclie (7700) and Lenva (3250) ma} also be mentioned. History. Remains of Paleolithic man, everywhere very scarce in Russia, have not yet been discovered in the upper basins of the Kama and Obi, with the exception, perhaps, of a single human skull found in a cavern on the Tchariva (basin of Kama), together with a skull of Ursus spelasus. Neolithic remains, on the other hand, are met with in immense quantities on both Ural slopes throughout the territory of Perm. Still larger quantities of imple ments belonging to an early Finnish, or rather Ugrian, civiliza tion are found everywhere in the basin of the Kama, even in its northern parts, the present district of Tcherdyn. Even Herodotus speaks of the richness of this country inhabited by the Ugrian s, who kept up a brisk traffic with the Greek colony of Olbia, and with the Bosphorus by way of the Sea of Azoff and the Volga. The precise period at which the Ugrians left the district for the southern steppes of Russia (the &quot; Lebedia &quot; of Constantino Porphyro- genitus) is not known. In the 9th century the Scandinavians were acquainted with the country as Biarmia, and Byzantine annalists knew it as Permia. Nestor describes it as a territory of the Perm, a Finnish people, some 50,000 of whom still remain, and whose name seems to have been derived from parma, a Finnish word denoting hilly tracts thickly covered with forests. The Russians penetrated into this region at an early date. In the llth century Novgorod levied tribute from the Finnish in habitants, and undertook the colonization of the country, which in the treaties of the 13th century is dealt with as a separate territory of Novgorod. In 1471, after the fall of Novgorod, Perm was annexed to Moscow, which in the following year erected a fort to protect Russian settlers and tradesmen from the Voguls, Ostyaks, anil Samoyedes. Tcherdyn, the oldest town of Perm, was already in existence in the 15th century. The mineral wealth of the country soon attracted the attention of the Moscow princes, and Ivan III. sent two Germans to search for ores ; these they succeeded in finding south of the upper Petchora. A great impulse to colon ization and mining was given by the Strogonoffs, when in the 16th century they received immense tracts of land oil the Kama and Tchusovaya. They founded the first salt and iron works, built forts, and colonized the Ural region. Solikamsk, Osa, Okhansk, and Verkhoturie were founded during this century. By the latter part of the century the Russian colonies had spread beyond the Ural Mountains ; and in this direction the Strogonoffs continued to extend their mining operations. The rapidly -growing trade with Siberia gave a new impulse to the development of the coun try. This trade had its centres at Perm and Solikamsk, where merchandise brought up the Kama was unshipped and transported by land to Verkhoturie, at that time the first Siberian town and custom-house on the great highway. Kungur, too, attained some commercial importance. The fair of Irbit in the 17th century became the chief seat of the trade in merchandise, brought both from Russia to Siberia and from Siberia and Bokhara to Russia. Communication with Siberia having taken a northern route, the southern parts of the territory were not colonized until the next century, when Ekaterinburg, Krasnoufimsk, and Alapaevsk were founded. In 1780 the provinces of Perm and Ekaterinburg were instituted, but were soon united into one. (P. A. K.)