Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/374

356 bloodshed. He was stabbed in his bedroom by a freedman of Clemens named Stephanus, 18th Sept. . Had Domitian died after as short a reign as his brother he might have left behind him as fair a name, and the interesting problem for the historian is to connect the two portions of his reign, and account for the double part he played. Like Hamlet he was born to a position which he felt himself unequal to fill. So long as the popularity which he inherited from his brother lasted, and he felt himself secure on his throne, he carried on the traditions of his father s government, denounced delators, and administered even justice. After his unsuccessful campaign and the conspiracy of his general, he was seized with the common disease of absolute monarchs, the fear of assassination and distrust of all around him. The last three years of his reign witnessed the awful spectacle of the acts of a madman endowed with unlimited power.  DON, anciently, a river of European Russia, which ranks immediately after the Volga and the Dnieper. It rises in the Ivan lake, a small basin in the government of Tula, which also sends a portion of its waters to the Volga by means of the Shat, a tributary of the Upa ; its course has a general southern direction through the governments of Riasan, Tamboft, Orloff, Voronesh, and the Country of the Don Cossacks ; its total length, inclusive of its various windings, is 1325 miles ; and its drainage area is calculated at 170,000 square miles. The Ivan lake lying 586 feet above the level of the sea, the average fall in the river is about 5 1 inches to the mile. In the upper division of its course, which may be regarded as extending to the con fluence of the Voronesh, the Don flows for the most part through a low-lying and fertile country, though in the government of Riasan its banks are rocky and steep, and in some places become even precipitous. The strata which it traverses belongs to the Devonian formation. In the middle division, or from the mouth of the Voronesh to the point when it makes its nearest approach to the Volga, it cuts its way to the S.E., for the most part through Creta ceous rocks, which in many places rise on either side in steep and elevated banks, and at intervals encroach on the channel. After passing Kachalinskaya it turns to the S.W., and maintains this direction till it falls into the Sea of Azoff, the first part of this division being still in the Cretaceous formation, but the latter part lying in an Upper Tertiary district. A short distance below the town of Rostoff it breaks up into several channels, of which the largest and most southern retains the name of the river, while the others are known respectively as the Mertvi Donetz, the Mokraya Koloncha, and the Staraya Kuterma. Before it receives the Voronesh, the Don has attained a breadth of from 500 to 700, or even in a few places 1000 feet, while its depth varies from 4 to 20 feet ; by the time it has reached its most eastern point, the depth has increased to from 7 to 50 feet, and the ordinary breadth to from 700 to 1000 feet, with an occasional maximum of 14,000 feet ; in the lowest division the depth is frequently 70 feet, and the breadth in many places 1800 feet. Shallow reaches are not uncommon, and there are at least seven considerable shoals in the south-western part of the course. The river can be used for rafts as far up as the confluence of the Sosna; it becomes navigable after the addition of the Voronesh, and has four regular stations for traffic at Vilkoff, Pavloff, Masloff, and Mamon, in the middle part of its course ; but partly owing to obstructions of the channel, and partly to the scarcity of ship-timber in the Voronesh government, it does not attain any great importance as a means of communication till it reaches Kachalinskaya. From that point, or rather from Kalatch where the railway from the Volga has its western terminus, the traffic is very extensive, and is carried on, not only by a variety of small river craft, but also by a regular system of steamboats. Of the tributaries of the river, which are between 30 and 40 in number, the Voronesh, the Khoper, the Medvieditza, and the Donetz are navigable,- the Donetz having a course of 678 miles, and affording during high water a passage to the government of Kharkoff. The lower section of the Don is subject to two annual floods, of which the first, known as the cold ivater, is caused by the melting of the snow in the country of the Don Cossacks, and the second, or the warm ivater, is due to the same process taking place in the region drained by the upper parts of the river. About the middle of June (o.s.) the subsidence sets in with great rapidity ; in August it is very low water, and navigation almost ceases ; but occasionally after the (September rains the traffic with small craft is again practicable. During the last hundred years there have been five floods of extraordinary magni tude, namely, in 1748, 1786, 1805, 1820, and 1845. The river is usually closed by ice from November or December to March or April, and at rare intervals the freezing takes place in October. At Aksai it remains open on the average 250 days in the year, at the mouth of the Medvieditza for 239, and at Novo-Cherkassk for 246.  DON COSSACK COUNTRY (in Russian, Domkago Voiska Zemlya, the Land of the Don Army), the south-west portion of European Russia, situated in the basin of the Don, and bounded in part by the Sea of Azoff. Its area, according to the military survey, is 59,650 square miles, or 135,761 square versts, but according to Schweizer 62,574 square miles, or 142,401 square versts. The most of the surface consists of an irregular steppe broken in some places by undulating elevations or conical hills, and traversed by the channels and ravines of the numerous tributaries and sub-tributaries of the principal river. The district to the north is especially flat, forming in fact, as is shown by the characteristics of its flora, a part of the great Aralo- Caspian depression. Cretaceous formations appear through out the whole &quot; country,&quot; Tertiary and Carboniferous forma tions especially to the south of the Donetz. Coal and anthracite are found in considerable abundance in several places, and iron ore occurs near the Miuss, the Donetz, and the Khoper. Limestone, chalk, and slate are common ; and salt is obtained from various lakes. The upper soil is in general black earth, the subsoil usually clay. Agricul ture is still in a backward state owing to the military pre judices of the Cossacks ; but the virgin fertility of the ground, and the proximity of such seaports as Taganrog and Rostoff conduce greatly to its development. Wheat is the most generally cultivated cereal, but rye is pretty largely grown in the northern and millet in the southern districts. Flax and hemp have been introduced, and maize is sown in the gardens. Stock-rearing is extensively prosecuted : in there were about 373,000 horses, 991,000 cattle, and 2,242,000 sheep. The horses show a mixture of various Asiatic strains, those of the southern districts being the best. The cattle are usually of Calmuck or Tatar race, but sometimes of Hungarian or Dutch ; and the sheep are, with slight exception, Russian, Calmuck, or Wallachian. The land of the Don Cossacks was divided in into the following seven districts Cherkassk, First Don, Second Don, Ust-Medvieditzki or Mouth of the Medvieditza, Khoper, Donetz, and Miuss ; and in a new district, or okrug, was formed of the nomadizing Calmucks. The six first-mentioned are divided into stanitzas, to each of which belongs a definite territory ; the Miuss district is occupied by regular landholders ; and the Calmucks are arranged according to hundreds, or sotnias. The population in of the whole Zemlya was 896,870, and in, 1,010,135. Novo-Cherkassk is the seat of government and the residence of the directing ataman of the Don army. In ancient times the Greeks had a colony at Tauais on the Sea of Azoff, and 