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the buildings for this purpose are constructed in the Asiatic manner. In one quarter of the city is the Khitaigorod, or Chinese town, where are placed all the merchants shops, amounting to 5 or 6000. Here is also the university, a printing office, and a building which contains the public papers. There are also two seminaries in which youth are taught the learned languages, and the arts and sciences. In Moscow is also a foundling hospital, where several thousand unfortunate children are nursed and educated.

567. Astracan. Astracan, the capital of a government of that name, is situated upon the Volga, 60 miles from its entrance into the Caspian. It is a place of considerable trade, and contains about 70,000 inhabitants, chiefly Armenians and Tartars. It is surrounded by an old brick wall, and garrisoned by Russian troops. The houses are mostly of wood, but the elevated part of the city commands a fine prospect of the Volga, which is there three miles wide. The earth near this city is impregnated with salt, which is formed in pits by the heat of the sun, to the thickness of an inch on the surface of the water. This commodity is conveyed on the Volga to the heart of Russia.

568. Cronstadt. On an island in the gulf of Finland, near the mouth of the Neva, is Cronstadt, a town containing 60,000 inhabitants. Here is a safe harbor for the Russian navy, and another for merchantmen. The entrance into the harbor is a narrow channel on the south side of the island, on which is a strong fortress, the other side also being defended by batteries. The houses in Cronstadt are chiefly of wood, and scattered over a great extent of ground. Here is a hospital for seamen, an academy for the instruction of officers of the navy, and dry docks for refitting ships of war, capable of containing nine ships upon the stocks. These docks are faced and paved with stone, and filled with water from a reservoir, by means of pumps worked by a steam engine, whose cylinder is 6 feet in diameter.

569. Riga. Riga is situated on the Dwina, near its entrance into the Baltic, is a strong town, the capital of Livonia, and a place of extensive trade. The inhabi

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tants are estimated at 27,000. Here is a floating bridge over the river of 2600 feet in length, which is removed at the freezing of the river, and replaced in the spring. It formerly belonged to Sweden, but was taken by the Russians in 1710, after a long siege, in which the inhabitants were greatly distressed by the plague.

570. Archangel. Archangel is a populous city on the Dwina, 6 miles from its entrance into the White Sea, in the 65th degree of latitude. It is three miles in length by one in bredth, and a place of extensive trade. It arose from a castle, by means of the English trade, and took its name from a monastery built in honor of the archangel Michael. From the year 1553, when the English discovered the passage to this place, to the building of Petersburg in 1703, Archangel enjoyed great trade and particular immunities, but these have been transferred to Petersburg. The houses are chiefly of wood, and the streets ill paved, but the trade of the place is considerable, and a large edifice, with numerous apartments, furnishes strangers as well as natives with accommodations for selling their merchandize.

571. Canals. The inland navigation of Russia deserves attention. By means of the canal of Vishnei Voloshof and the Volga, a communication by water is opened between Petersburg and Astracan, a distance of 2000 miles, and 4000 vessels are said to pass in a year. The canal of Ladoga, is carried along the margin of that Jake 67 miles, from the river Volkof to the Neva. Another canal leads from Moscow to the Don, opening a communication with the Euxine. In this manner inland navigation is opened from one extremity to the other of this extensive empire.

572. Manufactures. Several manufactures are car ried on in Russia to a considerable extent. Great quantities of isinglass are prepared from the sounds or air bladders of the sturgeon and other fish. The caviar, or salted roes of large fish, are furnished by the inhabi tants who live on the Volga. There are manufactories of oil, soap, candles, beer, salt-peter, paper, tobacco, linen, silks, lether, coarse cloths and hats. Shagreen is made of the best parts of horse hides, and impressed with

the seeds of certain plants, which are trod in to mark the lether. There are numerous iron founderies, and some fabrics of earthen ware.

an extensive By means of

573. Commerce. Russia carries on trade both with the east and the west. the North Sea and the Baltic, her trade is extended to the west of Europe and America, while the great rivers, the Euxine and Caspian Seas, bear her commerce to Persia and China. Her chief exports are pot ashes, flaxseed, hemp, flax, sail cloth, linseed oil, wheat and rye, candles, tallow, lether, soap, hides, wax, furs and timber; with iron, copper, lead, cavear and isinglass, amounting to the value of 30 millions of rubles or dollars. The imports are wine, fruit, coffee, rice, silks, and other commodities of the East and West Indies, to the amount of 20 millions of rubles. The Hindoo merchants and the mines of Siberia furnish gold, silver, and precious stones, and China furnishes tea, silks and nankeens.The current coin of Russia is estimated at 130 millions of rubles, and the paper used as money, at about two thirds of that sum.

574. Russian Islands. In the gulf of Finland, the island of Retusavi is remarkable for being the seat of Cronstadt, and a strong fortress which commands the entrance into the harbor. To Russia also belong Oesel and Dago, in the Baltic, peopled by Estonians. The first contains beautiful marble. Nova Zemlia, or New Land, consists of five islands in the North Sea, inhabited only by seals, walrusses, arctic foxes, the rane, and white bears. There are also some clusters of islands in the Pacific Ocean which belong to Russia.

TURKEY IN EUROPE.

575. History. The Turks, or Turcomans, who have given name to a most extensive empire, it is generally believed, descended from the Altaic mountains in Asia, about the middle of the sixth century, and pursuing their conquests in Armenia, Georgia, and Asia Minor, finally crossed over into Europe in the 14th century.The Eastern or Greek empire resisted the invaders for a long time, but on the 29th of May, 1453, Mahomet II.

took Constantinople by storm, and in succeeding years, all Greece, Egypt, and the Barbary coast, submitted to the Turkish arms.

576. Situation and Extent. That part of the Turkish dominions which lies in Europe, is situated between the 36th and 49th degrees of north latitude, and between the 16th and 30th of east longitude. The greatest length is about 870 miles, and the greatest bredth 680. It is bounded on the east and south by the Euxine, the Egean, and the strait that connects them, and on the south west by the Mediterranean and the gulf of Venice. On the west it is bounded by the Austrian dominions, and on the north by Russia.

577. Divisions. The principal provinces of Turkey are Moldavia, Bessarabia and Walachia, on the north of the Danube, the country of the ancient Goths. On the south of the Danube, Bosnia, Servia, Bulgaria. To the south of these, Romelia, which comprehends the ancient Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, Livadia or ancient Greece, the Morea, the ancient Peloponnesus, Albania, the ancient Epirus, and Illyricum, with Dalmatia, on the gulf of Venice, and the small province of Croatia.

578. Face of the Country and Climate. The face of European Turkey exhibits a great diversity of mountains and valleys, and is intersected with numerous rive ers. The mountainous regions are temperate or cold, while the valleys have heat sufficient to ripen rice, vines and olives. The seas which surround this territory contribute to render the air of the adjacent land mild and temperate. This is more particularly true of Greece, the southern part of Turkey, which is washed on three sides by the ocean, and has always been celebrated for its genial climate.

579. Mountains. To the west of Moldavia and the Buckovin runs a part of the Carpathian chain, anciently called, from its inhabitants, the Bastarnic Alps. In Bulgaria is the chain of Hemus, often mentioned by classical writers. To the south is a chain passing southward of Bosnia, Servia, and terminating in Rho dope. This chain divides the waters which flow to the Danube, from those which flow to the Adriatic and Egean

Sea. There are also mountains of some magnitude running through Greece, and some detached mountains, as Ossa, Pelion and Olympus.

580. Rivers. The Danube for about 500 miles forms a river of Turkey. It is, in some places, a mile in bredth, and navigable for the largest ships. The Save, one of the tributary streams of the Danube, separates Croatia and Bosnia from the Austrian dominions. The Drin enters the Save. The Morava, and numerous other rivers, enter the Danube. The Maritz, the ancient Hebrus, passing Adrianople, enters the Egean Sea, after a course of 250 miles. The Vardari, the ancient Axius, after a course of 200 miles, enters the gulf of Salonica. On the north, the Danube receives the Sereth and Pruth, two considerable rivers of Moldavia, and the Neister forms the boundary between Russia and Turkey.

581. Forests, Trees and Plants. There are considerable tracts in Turkey covered with forests. The southern provinces produce olives, figs and vines, with oranges and pomegranates. The origan and tragacanth are also the produce of this country, and the plant which yields the ladanon, a fragrant gum, which is collected by whipping the plant with thongs or straps of lether, to which the gum adheres. Here also grows the species of lichen, from which is prepared the beautiful crimson pigment called archil. The common trees are the oak, walnut, fir, larcn, cedar, maple, sycamore, chesnut and beech.

582. Animals and Minerals. The animals in Turkey are the same as in other countries in the same latitudes, with the addition of the camel. The horses of some parts of Turkey are deemed excellent.

Under the despotic government of Turkey, the human mind is depressed, and science neglected. Hence the mineral kingdom has not been explored. In the days of Philip, king of Macedon, the gold mines of Phillippi produced 1000 talents, or more than twelve millions of dollars a year, and the silver mines in Attica were productive, but these have been long since exhausted or neglected,

583. Natural Curiosities. On a peninsula which pro

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