The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

418 RUSSIA IN EUROPE.present it is mainly a commercial town, doing a large and increasing trade incorn, tobacco, tallow, soap, and leather. The St. Petersburg-Orenburg railway,which will eventually be continued to the heart of Asia, passes through Samaraand up the Samara valley to Busuluk.Sergiyemk, to the north-east of Samara, is well known on account of its coldsulphur springs ; and there, as well as in other towns of this region, the Kalmukmethod of curing diseases by the use of fermented mare's milk, or kumis, issuccessfully being practised.Sizran, on the Yolga, has risen into importance since the completion of themagnificent railway viaduct, 1,583yards in length, which there spans the riverFig. 216.—SlMBIHSK.Scale 1 : 70,000.SIMBIRSK7^oQ^$E ofGand whilst Khvalinsk and Vblsk, below it, are mainly dependent upon the exportof the agricultural produce of their environs, this rising town possesses anadditional source of wealth in its productive ozokerite mines.Saratov, capital of a government and with a population of nearly 100,000, isthe largest place in the Lower Volga basin. Unless it be the Sari-tau of theTatar annals, it dates only from the end of the sixteenth century, and eventhen did not occupy its present site, but lay about 6 miles farther up, and on theleft bank, at the junction of the little river Saratovka. Its political functionwas to curb the nomads and Cossack "brigands," but it fell a prey itself to thebands of Razin, N/ekrasov, and Pugachov. Although enclosed by an amphi-