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Rh V O L V L 281 it is scarcely possible to judge from his statements how far the Slavonians had by that time succeeded in penetrating into the basin of the Volga. The Arabian geographers also throw but little light on the condition of the Volga (which they knew under the names of Itil, Etil, or Atel) during the great migrations of the 3d century, or subsequently under the invasion of the Huns, the growth of the great Khazar empire in the southern steppes, and of that of Bulgaria on the middle Volga. But we know that in the 9th century the Volga basin was occupied by Finnish stems in the north, and by Khazars and various Turkish stems in the south. The Slavonians, driven perhaps to the west, had only the Volkhoff and the Dnieper, while the Mohammedan Bulgarian empire, at the confluence of the Volga with the Kama, was so strong that for some time it was an open question whether Islam or Christianity was to gain the upper hand among the Slavonian idolaters. But, while the Russians were driven from the Black Sea by the Khazars, and later on by a tide of Ugrian migration from the north-east to the south-west (see p. 5 supra), a stream of Slavonians slowly moved towards the north-east, down the Oka, into the borderland between the Finnish and Turkish stems. After two centuries of struggle the Russians succeeded in coloniz ing the fertile valleys of the Oka basin ; in the 12th century they built a series of fortified towns on the Oka and Klyazma, and finally they reached the mouth of the Oka, there founding (in 1222) a new Novgorod the Novgorod of the Lowlands, now Nijni-Novgorod. The great lacustrine depression of the middle Volga was thus reached. Under the protection of the forts in the north-east, of the forests of Ryazan in the south, and of the marshes of Novgorod and Tver in the north, the Great-Russian nationality freely developed in the fertile valleys of the Oka, absorbing the feeble Finnish tribes which formerly peopled them ; and when the Tartar-Mongolian invasion came it encountered in the Oka basin a dense agricultural population with many fortified and wealthy towns, a population which the Mongols found they could conquer, indeed, but were unable to drive before them as they had done with so many of the Turkish stems. This invasion only checked but did not stop the further advance of the Russians down the Volga ; nay, it partly facilitated it, because it weakened the Bulgarian empire, and, by keeping up on the lower Volga a continual flow and ebb of nomads, prevented the development there of any settled population which might ultimately have op posed the further advance of the Russians towards the Caspian. Two centuries elapsed before the Russians covered the 300 miles which separate the months of the Oka and the Kama, and took possession of Kazan. But in the meantime a flow of Novgorodian colonization had moved eastward, in the upper portions of the left- bank tributaries of the Volga, and had reached the Urals, thus opening the way to Siberia. With the capture of Kazan the Russians found the lower Volga open to their boats, and eight years afterwards they were already masters of the mouth of the river at Astrakhan. The Tartars and Turks of the steppes between the Dnieper and the Volga were thus encircled; the Little Russians endeavoured to take possession of the lower Dnieper, and the Great Russians already had a firm foot ing on the lower Volga. The possession of the latter opened a free passage to the Don, up the little river Kamyshinka (now dried up but then navigable), which gave easy means of crossing the narrow isthmus between the Don and the Volga. Tims the lower Don was colonized. But two centuries more elapsed before the Russians opened for themselves a free passage to the Black Sea and became masters of the Sea of Azoff and the Crimea ; the Volga, however, was their route. During these two centuries they fortified the lower river, settled it, and penetrated also farther eastward into the steppes, towards the upper Ural and thence to the upper parts of the Tobol and the other great Siberian rivers. They penetrated also into the northern parts of the Caucasus isthmus, while another stream of armed colonization moved up the Kama and its numerous tributaries ; finding the sources of these close to those of the Ob and Tobol, they crossed the low watersheds of the Urals and spread over northern Siberia, always following the river courses and tak ing advantage of the portages for penetrating from one basin into the next. The entire growth of Russia towards the east went on from the Volga and its tributaries, and the long line of water com munication (nearly 1000 miles) which flows from the upper Kama (60 N. lat. ) to Astrakhan (46 4 ), between Europe and Asia, and extends as far south as Astrabad on the Caspian (36 51 N. lat.), became the basis for all further advance of Russia into Asia. Bibliography. Semenoff s Geographical and Statistical Dictionary, 5 vols. , 18G:j-188&quot;&amp;gt;, contains a full bibliography of tlie Volga and tributaries up to date. See also Bacr s Kaspische. Studien, 18:)7 fq.; Ilaxtlmusen s Slut/ien ulicr Jltis.tland; IJacr and Helmersen s IMtrugf.; Rpiski nasdenmikh iiiyest of Volga provinces; V. Ragozin s Volga, 3 vols., 1880-81, with atlas (Russian); N. Bogo- luboff, The Volga from Tver to Astrakhan (Russian), 1876; S. Monastyrskiy, Illustrated Handbook of the Volga (Russian), Kazan, 1884 ; Nijcgorodskiti Sbornik (Russian); Reclus s Geographic Unicerselle, vol. v. ; Rosknschny, Die Wolga vnd ihre Zujliisse, Lcipsic, 1887, vol. i. (history, ethnography, hydrography, and biography, with rich bibliographical information); N. Boguslavskly, The Volga as a Means of Communication (Russian), 1887, with detailed profile and maps ; M. BoRdanoff, Birds and Mammals of the Black-Earth Region of the. Volga, 1869; Id., &quot;Fauna of Volga,&quot; in Mem. Kazan Natur., 1872; Peretyatkovitch, Volga Region in the lath and IGt/t Centuries, 1877; Klopoff, Results of Explora tion of Volga Corn Trade, 1887. For geology, sec the publications of the Geological Committee and Mineral Society (maps of VarosTavl and lower Volga), and Memoirs of Astrakhan Statistical Committee for fishing. (P. A. K.) VOLHYNIA, a government of south-western Russia, bounded by the Polish provinces of Lublin and Siedlce on the W., Grodno and Minsk on the N., Kieff on the E., and Podolia and Galicia (Austria) on the S., has an area of 27,731 square miles. A broad and flat spur of the Carpathians the Avratynsk plateau which enters from the west and spreads eastward towards the Dnieper, occupies its southern portion, reaching a maximum elevation of 1200 feet; another branch of the Carpathians in the west of the government ranges between 700 and 900 feet at its highest points. Both are deeply grooved in some places, and the crags give a hilly aspect to the districts where they occur. The remainder of the government, which is quite flat, with an imperceptible slope towards the marshes of Pinsk, is known as the Polyesie (see MINSK). It is covered by impassable marshes (sometimes as much as 400 square miles in extent), sparsely interspersed with forests and traversed by languid streams, with low, almost inaccessible banks, here and there diversified by sandy dunes. The drainage of the Polyesie is, however, being vigorously carried on, and large tracts of meadow land have already been reclaimed by extensive operations recently undertaken by Government. Among the marshes are many small lakes. Volhynia is copiously watered by a number of com paratively unimportant rivers which rise in the Avratynsk Hills and flow northwards towards the Dnieper; the Pripet with the Turia, the Styr, the Goryii, the Slutch, and other smaller tributaries of the Dnieper are navigable by small boats, and considerable quantities of timber and firewood are floated. By the western Bug, which separates Volhynia from Poland, timber is floated and corn and various goods shipped to Prussia. The geological formation of Volhynia is very simple. The Avratynsk Hills, consisting of granite and various crystalline rocks, are covered with the Chalk, above which in turn are Tertiary sand stones, sands, and clays containing lignite. The whole is covered by Glacial deposits and Lacustrine clays, reaching a great thickness in the north. Kaolin, pottery clay, and iron ore are the chief mineral products ; amber also is occasionally found in the Tertiary sands. The climate of Volhynia, notwithstanding the influence of its marshes, is much milder than that of central Russia within the same latitudes. The vegetation on the southern slopes of the Avratynsk Hills begins to show something of a West-European character ; oaks, maples, and limes prevail, while on the northern slope there are immense forests of Scotch fir. The forests cover more than one-third of the entire area, and it is reckoned that 2,500,000 acres yield timber for building purposes. The population of Volhynia in 1881 was 2,096,475, of whom nearly four-fifths were Little Russians (from 70 to 91 per cent, in various districts); there were 30,000 White Russians and some 10,000 Great Russians. Next in importance to the Russians come the Jews, who numbered about 12 per cent, of the population. The Poles are variously estimated at from 120,000 to 170,000, but are certainly under 7 per cent, of the total population. The Germans number about 30,000. Agriculture cannot be said to flourish except on the Avratynsk plateau and its slopes, but is still the chief occupation, and more than one-third of the area is under crops. The fertile soil of the south produces a surplusage of corn, which is either used in distilleries or exported ; the average crops from 1883 to 1885 were 1,606,000 quarters of rye, 550,000 of wheat, 1,145,000 of oats, 394,000 of barley, and 1,032,000 of potatoes. }lay is exported, but cattle-breeding has boon almost stationary since 1850. In 1883 there were 506,500 horses, 6-55,050 cattle, and 571,500 sheep. Wool is exported. Beet is largely grown for sugar (38,000 acres, producing 4,800,000 cwts., having been under this crop in 1885). The culture of tobacco is rapidly extending (7000 tobacco plantations yielding about 8000 cwts. of tobacco in 1885). In the Polyesie the principal occupations are connected with the export of timber and firewood, the preparation of pitch, tar, potash, and various wooden wares, and boat-building. The wild boar, bear, fox, and hare are hunted. The manufactures in 1884 yielded 18,884,000 roubles, as against only 2,856,000 in 1860. The goods principally produced are sugar, spirits, woollen cloth, paper, china, and metal wares. Wool, corn, XXIV. 36