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“ Agriculture is the principal occupation; in the north, however, many of the inhabitants are engaged in the timber trade and various domestic industries. Cattle-breeding is carried on in the central districts, and there were in 1883 572,200 horses, 515,300 cattle, and 948,000 sheep. ”

“ Chalk deposits prevail in the north, and Eocene in the south. The government is watered by the Dnieper (which forms its western boundary for 178 miles) and its tributaries the Soj and the Desna. The latter, which flows through Tchernigoff for nearly 350 miles, is navigable, and timber is brought down its tributaries. Corn, linseed, timber, brandy, hemp, and sugar are shipped on the Dnieper, Soj, and Desna, and salt imported. The climate is much colder in the woody tracts of the north than in the south ”

“ Great Russians (6·1 per cent.) , mostly Raskolniks, and White Russians (5·6 per cent.) inhabit the northern districts. Jews have spread rapidly since last century, and now number more than 45,000. There are, besides, some 20,000 Germans as well as Greeks at Nyezhin. ”