Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/322

Rh 298 V K V S than one-tenth of the entire area is under wood, and both timber and firewood have to be imported. The Don traverses Voronezh from north to south-east, watering it for more than 400 miles ; it is an important channel for the export of corn, tallow, and other raw pro duce, as well as for the import of wood, floated from the north. Its tributary the Voronezh is also navigated, and another large tributary, the Vorona, flows through the eastern part of the government. Many other small streams flowing into the Don intersect the territory, but the influence of the dry steppes begins to make itself felt ; there are no lakes, and marshes persist only in the valleys. The climate is therefore continental, and, although the mean temperature at Voronezh is 42 7 F., that of January is as low as 8 &quot;3 and that of July as high as 74 - 2. The population is steadily increasing, and reached 2,532,840 in 1883 as against 1,974,400 in 1860. It is Little Russian in the south-west (from 35 to 40 per cent., according to different estimates), and Great Russian elsewhere. There are also a few German colonies with some 3500 inhabitants, and a few Poles (2000). Agriculture is the chief occupation, and corn is exported to a considerable amount. The average crops from 1883 to 1885 reached 3,467,800 quarters of rye, 901,600 of wheat, 958,000 of oats, 1,680.000 of various grains, and 960,100 of potatoes. 17,000 acres were under beet (176,000 cwts. in 1885); tobacco is also largely cultivated, and the crop of 1885 yielded 1,723,000 ft. The sun flower has also been much cultivated of late for oil. The Voronezh horses enjoy a high reputation in Russia, as also do its cattle, and cattle-breeding has advanced during the last thirty years. In 1883 there were 535,500 horses, 649,100 cattle, and 1,348,100 sheep. Bees are kept in many villages, and honey is gathered to the annual amount of more than 10,000 cwts. Market-gardening and fishing are also of importance. The manufactures are of recent growth; the production reached 2,066,000 in 1884, the chief products being spirits, oil, sugar, woollens, and tallow. Wheat and other grains, flour, flax, tallow and hides, wool, and cattle are the chief items of export. Voronezh is divided into twelve districts, the chief towns of which are Voronezh (56,185 inhabitants in 1885), Biryutch (4435), Bobroff(8660), Bogutchary (4230),Korotoyak (1840), Nijne-Dyevitsk (2635), Novokhopersk (8015), Ostrogozhsk (8610), Pavlovsk (8390), Valuiki (4425), Zadonsk, with a great monastery (9940), and Zem- lyansk (3870). These are mostly mere administrative centres ; and several villages, such as Buturlinovka (21,700),Katatch (13,000), and Vorontsovka (12,000), have larger populations and more commerce. VORONEZH, capital of the above government, is situated on a high bank of the river of the same name, 365 miles by rail to the south of Moscow. It is almost entirely built of wood, and only recently began to re- acquire importance as an entrepot on the railway which connects Moscow with the Sea of Azoff. It has a military school of cadets, gymnasiums for boys and girls, and a number of schools for elementary education. Its theatre, now rebuilt, has a name in the history of the Russian stage, and the town was also the birthplace of two peasant poets, to whom we owe some of the finest ex amples of Russian poetry Koltsoff and Nikitin. A memorial to the former has been erected on a public pro menade. A few factories for cleansing wool and for the preparation of tallow and oil, as well as some distilleries, have arisen of late. The population of the town in creased from 39,800 in 1860 to 56,185 in 1885. It is now an important entrepot for corn, flax, tallow, hides, sugar, wood, and coal from the Don ; the railway traffic amounts to 2^ million cwts., and that of the Razdelnaya junction, close by, is nearly thrice that amount. Voronezh was founded in 1586, as a fort against Tartar raids, on a site which had been occupied from the llth century by a Khazar town, but had been deserted during the 14th and 15th centuries. Four years afterwards it was burned by the Tartars, but again re built, and soon became an important trading place. Its wooden fort was rebuilt in 1672. Peter I. recognized its importance, and in 1694 erected on an island of the river a wharf, where a flotilla of sixty-six boats (2546 guns and 17,000 men) was built, under the direction of Dutch shipbuilders, for the conquest of Azolf. It thus became the basis of further advances towards the Black Sea. The town was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1703, 1748, and 1773, but was always rebuilt and has steadily developed. VORTEX MOTION. See HYDROMECHANICS, vol. xii. p. 450 sq. VOSGES, a mountain range of central Europe, stretching along the west side of the Rhine valley in a north-north east direction, from Basel to Mainz, for a distance of 150 miles. Since 1871 the southern portion, from the Ballon d Alsace to Mont Donon, has been the political boundary between France and Germany. There is a remarkable similarity between the Vosges and the corresponding range of the Black Forest on the other side of the Rhine : both lie within the same degrees of latitude and have the same geological formation; both are characterized by fine forests on their lower slopes, above which are open pasturages and rounded summits of a uniform altitude; both have a steep fall to the Rhine and a gradual descent on the other side. The Vosges in their southern portion are mainly of granite, with some porphyritic masses, and of a kind of red sand stone (occasionally 1640 feet in thickness) which on the western versant bears the name of &quot; gres Vosgien.&quot; Geographically the range is divided from south to north into four sections : the Grandest Vosges (62 miles), extending from Belfort to the valley of the Bruche ; the Central Vosges (31 miles), between the Bruche and the Col de Saverne ; the Lower Vosges (30 miles), between the Col de Saverne and the source of the Lauter ; and the Hardt (25 miles). The rounded summits of the Grandes Vosges are called &quot;ballons.&quot; The departments of Vosges and Haute Saone are divided from Alsace and the territory of Belfort by the Ballon d Alsace or St Maurice (4100 feet). Thence north wards the average height of the range is 3000 feet, the highest point of all, the Ballon de Guebwiller (Gebweiler) or Soultz, rising on the east to a height of 4680 feet. The Col de Saales, between the Grandes Vosges and the central section, is 1900 feet high ; the latter is both lower and narrower than the Grandes Vosges, the Mont Donon and other chief heights not exceeding 3300 feet. The railway from Paris to Strasburg and the Rhine and Marne Canal traverse the Col de Saverne (1085 feet). No railway crosses the Vosges between Saverne and Belfort, but there are very good carriage roads over the passes of Bussang (2410 feet) from Remire- mont to Thann, the Schlucht (3746 feet) from Gerardmer to Minister, the Bon Homrae (3100 feet) from St Die to Colmar, and from St Die to St Marie-aux-Mines (2625 feet). The Lower Vosges are a sandstone plateau ranging from 1000 to 1850 feet high, and are crossed by the railway from Hagenau to Sarreguemines, defended by the fort of Bitche. The Hardt, a sterile region, covered with heath and low brushwood, has for its highest point the Donners- berg (Mont Tonnerre), 2264 feet high ; it is traversed through deep ravines by the railways from Deux-Ponts to Landau, and from Kaiserslautern to Spires and Worms. Meteorologically, the differ ence between the eastern and western versants of the range is very marked, the annual rainfall being much higher and the mean temperature being much lower in the latter than in the former. On the eastern slope the vine ripens to a height of 1300 feet ; on the other hand, its only rivers are the 111 and other shorter streams, which afford water-power rather by their rapid fall than by their abundance. The Moselle, Meurthe, and Sarre all rise on the Lorraine side. Moraines, boulders, and polished rocks testify the existence of the glaciers which formerly covered the Vosges. The lakes, surrounded by pines, beeches, and maples, the green meadows where hundreds of cows with tinkling bells peacefully graze, and the fine views of the Rhine valley, Black Forest, and snow-covered Swiss mountains combine to make the district charmingly pictur esque. The lower heights and buttresses of the main chain on the Alsatian side are covered with numerous castles, generally in ruins, in connexion with which curious legends and interesting historical incidents are told. At several points on the main ridge, especially at St Odile above Ribeauvillo (Rappoltsweiler), are the remains of a wall of unmortared stone with tenons of wood, 6 to 7 feet thick and 4 to 5 feet high, called the pagan wall (Mur Pay en). It was certainly used for local defence in the Middle Ages, and archaeolo gists are divided as to whether it was built for this purpose by the Romans, or before their arrival. VOSGES, a frontier department of eastern France, was formed in 1790, for the most part of territory previously belonging to Lorraine, with fragments of Franche-Comte, Champagne, and Alsace. The portion belonging to Alsace was ceded to Germany in 1871. Lying between 47 48 and 48 32 N. lat., and 5 22 and 7 10 E. long., the department is bounded by Alsace-Lorraine on the E. and by the departments of Meurthe-et-Moselle on the N., Meuse on the N.W., Haute-Marne on the W., and Haute-Saone on