ditsa from the left. The Don is navigable throughout the
government, and at Kalach is connected by a railway, 45 m. long, with
Tsaritsyn on the Volga, routes by which an enormous amount of heavy
merchandise is transported. The climate is continental and dry, the
average temperatures being--year 43 deg. Fahr., January 13 deg., July 72
deg. at Uryupina (in 50 deg. 48' N.; alt. 92 ft.); and year 48 deg.,
January 21 deg., July 73 deg. at Taganrog. The annual rainfall at the
same two places is 13.4 and 17.4 in. respectively. Forests cover only 2%
of the area.

Nearly one-half of the population are Cossacks, the other ethnological
groups being (1897) 27,234 Armenians, 2255 Greeks, 1267 Albanians,
16,000 Jews and some 30,000 Kalmuck Tatars, who are Lamaists in
religion. Nearly all the rest of the people, except the Jews and about
3000 Mahommedans, belong to the Orthodox Eastern Church. The Cossacks
own nearly 30,000,000 acres of land. The government is well provided
with schools, especially on the Cossack territory. Agriculture is the
principal occupation, but the crops vary very greatly from year to year,
owing to deficiency of rain. Vines are cultivated on a large scale, and
tobacco is grown in the south. Cattle-breeding is important, and there
are fine breeds of horses and large flocks of sheep. Productive
fisheries are carried on at the mouth of the Don. Nearly 13,000 persons
are engaged in coal-mining; the coalfields form part of the vast Donets
coal basin (10,420 sq. m., with a total output of nearly 13,000,000 tons
annually). Some iron ore, gypsum, salt and limestone are also produced.
The principal branches of manufacturing industry are flour-milling,
potteries, ironworks and tobacco factories. The exports consist chiefly
of cereals, cattle, horses, sheep, wine, fish and hides. The government
is under the administration of the ministry of war, and is divided into
nine districts--Donets (chief town, Kamenskaya with 23,576 inhabitants
in 1897), First Don district (Konstantinovskaya, 8800), Second Don
district (Nizhne-Chirskaya, 15,196), Rostov (Rostov-on-Don, 119,889),
Salsky (Velikoknyazheskaya), Taganrog (Taganrog, 58,928 in 1900),
Ust-medvyeditsa (Ust-medvyeditsa, 16,000), Khoper (Uryupina, 9600),
Cherkasky (Novo-cherkassk, 52,005). The capital of the government is
Novo-cherkassk. Many of the Cossack _stanitsas_ (villages) are very
populous. (P. A. K.; J. T. BE.)

DONEGAL, a county in the extreme north-west