Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/459

Rh cwts. of lead, 6720 cwts. of copper, 240,000 cwts. of coal, 330,000 cwts. of salt, and 30,000 cwts. of bitter salt were obtained. In the same year only 3000 cwts. of iron were manufactured, and that metal is still imported from the Urals. The jade, beautiful porphyries, and the like of the district, which are cut into works of art at the crown works of Kotyvafi, are well known through the urns and vases shown at the St Petersburg Hermitage. The mineral waters of the Altai are of high quality.

Tomsk is watered mainly by the Ob and its tributaries, only its south-east corner draining into the Abakan, a tributary of the Yenisei. The Ob, formed by the union of the Biya and Katun, has within the government a course of more than 800 miles, and is navigated as far as Barnaul and Biysk. Its tributaries, the Tom (450 miles), the Vasyugan (530 miles), the Ket (230 miles), and the Tym (200 miles)", are all navigable. The Tchutym and the Tchumysh are also great rivers. Of tributaries of the Irtish, the Bukhtarma, the Om, the Uba, and the Tara are worthy of notice. As many as 1500 lakes have been counted on the maps, but this number is exceeded by the reality. Some of them are alpine; others dot the steppes or the marshy tracts. Lake Tchany, not withstanding its rapid desiccation, still covers 1265 square miles. Many brackish lakes, Kutundinsk, Kutchuk, &c., attain a great size, and some small salt lakes yield about 100,000 cwts. of salt. The climate is very severe, and has, moreover, the disadvantage of being very wet in the north-west. The average yearly temperatures at Tomsk, Kainsk, and Barnaul are 30°·2, 31°, and 32°·7 (January, 4°, -6°·2, and 3°·7; July, 65°·5, 68°·5, and 62°.2). The Altai steppes, enjoying a much drier climate than the low lands, are covered with a beautiful vegetation, and in the sheltered valleys corn is grown to heights of 3400 and 4250 feet.

The population, which is rapidly increasing, in 1882 reached 1,134,750. The Russians are in a large majority, the indigenous inhabitants numbering in 1879 only 63,600, or 6·6 per cent, of the aggregate population. They include 23,600 Altaian Tartars, 5730 Teleutes, 17,020 Mountain Kalmucks (see, 10,000 Tomsk Tartars, 2920 Samoyedes, and 4210 Ostiaks. The prevailing religion is Greek-Orthodox, but there are also some 50,000 Nonconformists, 7320 Catholics, 2600 Jews, 10,700 Mohammedans, and about 28,000 pagans.

Agriculture is the prevailing occupation. It is most productive on the elevated plains of Tomsk, Mariinsk, Barnaul, Kuznetsk, and Biysk. Cattle-breeding is much developed, especially in the Kutundinsk steppe; and bee-keeping is an important source of wealth. Fishing and hunting are extensively carried on in the forest region. Mining occupies several thousands of men in the Altai. Manufactures are insignificant, the aggregate production—chiefly from distilleries and tanneries—hardly amounting to £250,000. Trade is actively carried on at Tomsk and Barnaul, which are two great centres for the export and import trade of Siberia with Russia. The Biysk merchants carry on exchange trade with Mon golia and China. There are eight gymnasia (696 boys and 569 girls in 1883) and 225 primary schools (5680 boys, 1730 girls). The government is divided into six districts, the chief towns of which (with populations in 1884) are Tomsk (31,380), Barnaul (17,180), Biysk (18,960), Kainsk (4050), Kuznetsk (7310), and Mariinsk (13,090). Narym (1600) also has municipal institutions; it is the centre for the administration of the wide Narym region. Of the above towns only Tomsk and Barnaul have the aspect of European towns. Barnaul, capital of the mining district of the Altai, which belongs to the "Cabinet of the Emperor," is a wealthy city, with a mining school and laboratory, a botanic garden, a museum of mining and natural history, and a meteorological observatory. Kolyvan, with a stone-cutting manufactory, has 12,250 inhabitants. Several mining villages are more important than the district towns: Zyryanovsk (silver-mine; 4500 inhabit ants), Riddersk, Zmeinogorsk (6160), Suzunsk (5400), and Salairsk (3500).

 TOMSK, capital of the above government, is situated on the Tom at its confluence with the Ushaika, 27 miles above its junction with the Ob, and 2377 miles from Moscow. It is one of the chief cities of Siberia, second only to Irkutsk in population and trade importance. The great Siberian highway from Tyumen to Irkutsk passes through Tomsk, and it is the terminus of the navigation by steamer from the Urals to Siberia. It has, moreover, communication by steamer with Barnauł and Biysk in the Altai. The position of Tomsk determines its character, which is not that of an administrative centre, like so many Russian cities, but that of an entrepot of wares, with many storehouses and wholesale shops. Before 1824 it was a mere village; but after the discovery of gold in the district it grew rapidly; and, although the immense wealth that accumulated suddenly in the hands of a few proprietors of gold diggings was as rapidly squandered, it continued to maintain its importance, owing to the navigation on the Irtish and the Ob, which meanwhile had grown up. It is built on two terraces on the high right bank of the Tom, and is divided into two parts by the Ushaika. The streets are rather narrow and steep; many houses of the richer merchants are of stone, but rather heavy in appearance, and altogether the aspect of the streets is not attractive. The best building is that of the future university, which is a spacious and elegant structure, with ample accommodation for library, museums, and clinical hospitals. The Government has not as yet given permission to inaugurate the building. A large cathedral, begun some five-and-twenty years ago by proprietors of gold diggings, collapsed after considerable progress had been made. The industries are almost entirely confined to tanning and the manufacture of carriages. The trade is of great importance, Tomsk being not only a centre for traffic in local produce, in which sledges (50,000 every year) and cars are prominent items, but also for the trade of Siberia with Russia. The population in 1884 was 31,380.  TONGA.See.  TONG-KING,, or, as it is called by the Annamese,, consists of that portion of Annam between 18° N. lat and the frontiers of the Chinese provinces of Kwang-se and Yun-nan, with an area of 60,000 square miles. On the W. it is bounded by the Tran-ninh range, which forms the limit of the Lao states, and on the E. by the sea. In shape it resembles, roughly speaking, an isosceles triangle, having its apex at its juncture with Annam and its base along the Chinese boundary. The name Tong-king, "the eastern capital," was originally applied to Hanoi, but was eventually adopted as that of the whole country. It is the same word as (q.v.).

Geographically Tong-king is divided into three well-defined areas. First, there is the delta of the Song-koi ("Red river") and its affluents, which, beginning at Sontay, widens out into the low lands which constitute the most fertile district in Tong-king, and within which are situated the principal cities of the country. Here is grown the rice which constitutes 39 per cent, of the total exports from Tong-king, and which is reckoned in the Hong-Kong market to be equal in quality to the rice from Siam and superior to that from Cochin-China. During the rainy season this part of the country, with the exception of the embankments, is under water, but notwithstanding this the climate is fairly healthy, and the prevalence of fever and dysentery is not so great as might be expected. From the delta northward and westward rise plateau districts, while westward of 103 E. long, there stretches a forest region about which very little is known, but which is said by the natives to be inhabited only by savages and wild beasts.

Politically the country is divided into sixteen provinces, of which the following seven are in the delta mentioned: Bac-ninh, Sontay, Hanoi, Hai-Dzuong, Hung-yen, NamDinh, and Ninh-Binh. Five provinces constitute the upland districts, viz., Cao-Banh, Lang-son, Thai-Nguyen, Tuyen-Kwan, and Kwang-yen; while the forests form the province of Hung-hoa. The main geographical feature in the country is the Song-koi, which, taking its rise near Tali Fu, in Yun-nan, enters Tong-king at Lao-kai ("the Lao boundary"), and flows thence in a south-easterly direction to the Gulf of Tong-king. It was this river which mainly in the first instance attracted the French to Tongking, as it was believed by the explorers that, forming the shortest route by water to the rich province of Yun-nan, it would prove also to be the most convenient and expeditious means of transporting the tin, copper, silver, and