The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

306 RUSSIA IN EUROPE.Fanatics are even said to have entombed themselves in these catacombs, wherethey wasted away far from the profane world. One of the tombs is that of themonk Nestor, who lived in the cloister, and here doubtless composed portions ofthe annals attributed to him. The Lavra is a place of pilgrimage, yearly visitedby about 300,000 Great and Little Russian devotees, especially on the feasts of theTrinity and Assumption. During the night of August 15th, 1872, as many as72,000 lay stretched on the bare ground, and whenever an epidemic prevails inany part of the empire it is soon propagated to this Mecca of the OrthodoxGreeks, where it often makes frightful ravages, and is thence disseminatedthroughout the land. In years of distress the number of pilgrims increases, avisit to the holy Lavra entitling them to beg for the bread which fails them athome.The old fortifications of the Lavra have been enlarged by regular linesenclosing all the hill, and the Pechersk quarter has been destroyed to makeroom for these works. On the other hand, the enclosures of the old town havebeen demolished, but detached forts have been raised on the heights commandingthe line of railway, and there is a project to erect others on the present site ofthe University, Observatory, and other large buildings. The University, transferredfrom Vilna after the Polish insurrection of 1831, still remains the thirdin the empire, notwithstanding its recent losses, especially those of 1878, when140 students were exiled for political offences. The natural history and someother collections are very valuable, and the library (150,000 volumes) hasbeen enriched with the plunder of those of Vilna and Kremenetz. Since 1878courses have been opened for women, and in that year there were altogether94 professors and 771 students. Besides the University there is an ecclesiasticalacademy, with library and museum, frequented by students from Servia andBulgaria.Apart from the churches and schools, the only monuments are the statue ofSt. Vladimir and the column commemorating the baptism of his people in 988 inthe waters of the Potshaina. For at this period the Dnieper did not flow at thefoot of the Kiev hills, but much farther east, where is now the " Devil's Ditch,"joining the Potshaina at the base of the Pechersk bluff. At present it shows atendency to return to its old bed, and for some twenty years works of embankmenthave been carried on to preserve the existing channel, now lined by timber, corn, andbeet-root sugar depots, and the various factories and dockyards of the busy Podolquarter. Lower down it is crossed by a suspension bridge 2,650 feet long, and2 miles farther south by the new railway bridge.Twenty-four miles south-west of Kiev lies the old town of Vasilkov, on theStugna, a western affluent of the Dnieper, and on the Ros is Belaya Tzerkov, or" White Church," a former capital of the Cossacks, now a busy mart, with a factoryof agricultural implements, and a castle containing some valuable historical records.South of the Stugna are the remains of old ramparts raised against the Polvotzes,or Kumans, and now known as the " Snake's Ditch " (Zmiyev Vol).According tothe legend the fosse under the breastworks was hollowed out by a dragon yoked to