The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

420 RUSSIA IN EUROPE.Astrakhan, capital of the vast government of the Caspian.steppes, does nottake the position to which it might seem to be entitled as the outport of a basinthree times the size of France, and containing a population of about 50,000,000.In some respects it is even a decayed place. Formerly it enjoyed a monopoly ofthe Russian trade with the regions beyond the Caspian ;but now the overlandroutes through Orenburg on the north, and Tiflis on the south, are preferredto the sea route. The dangerous bars of the Volga delta are more and moreavoided by international trade, and on the completion of the railway from Orenburgto the cities of Turkestan, the Caspian trade of Astrakhan will doubtless ceasealtoo-ether, unless Danilov's projected canal be constructed.Fig. 218. District infected by the Plague in 1878.EcfP 4J\Scale 1 : 3,700,000.Even on the CaspianAstrakhan is no longer the chiefport, being already outstrippedby Baku.The active river navigationalso between Ribinsk,Yaroslav, Nijni, and Saratovgradually diminishes below thelast-named place, while belowAstrakhan it is quite insignificant.Astrakhan stood formerly on" seven hills," or rather on sevenof the so-called b&gri, or naturalmounds, described farther back.But according as the ground onthe banks of the river becamefirmer, most of the houses werebuilt on the water side, wherethey are now commanded by thekreml, the cathedral, palace,monastery, and barracks.It wasfrom one of these that the Metropolitan was thrown when the place was taken byStephen Razin.The minarets of the mosques mingling with the domes and gildedcupolas of the churches, and the canals crowded with craft, impart to the citya more varied and animated appearance than is usual in Russian towns.The Northern Steppes. — Ural Basin.(Government of Orenburg— Army of the Ural.)The commercial centre of the two rivers Uzen, between the Volga and theUral, is Novo- Uzensk, surrounded by tobacco plantations. But the great marketof East Russia, and the fortunate rival of Astrakhan, is Orenburg, at the junctionof the Ural and Sakmara. It dates only from 1742, although in 1735 theRussians had raised a fortress of this name at the confluence of the Ural and Ora,in order to command the Kirghiz and Bashkirs. But the foundation of this