The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

356 RUSSIA IN EUROPE.Vologda, on the site of an old Russian colony dating from the twelfthcentury,covers a large space with its domed churches and low straggling houses. It liesat the south-western extremity of the Dvina hasin, on a river which here becomesnavigable, and which a little farther down joins the Sukhona, one of the mainbranches of the Dvina. It is well situated for traffic with the Volga and Nevabasins, and when Russia opened direct relations with England through the WhiteSea, it was chosen as the intermediary between Moscow and Archangel. It alsoFi?. 187. Ahchangel.became the starting-point of the Siberian trade, while the southern route by Kazanremained exposed to the attacks of the Bashkirs. It still sends to the Lower Dvinaflax, oats, and other produce, to the yearly value of over £160,000, and toSt. Petersburg butter, eggs, and sail-cloth.For a distance of 480 miles, from Ust-YCig to Archangel, there is no townproperly so called, any more than on the Dvina affluents, except Ust-Sisolsk,capital of the Ziryanians, in the Vichegda basin. During the Novgorod rule the