,451. The Bulgarian inhabitants of the Peninsula beyond
the limits of the principality may, perhaps, be estimated at 1,500,000 or
1,600,000, and the grand total of the race possibly reaches 5,500,000.

_Ethnology._--The Bulgarians, who constitute 77.14% of the inhabitants of
the kingdom, are found in their purest type in the mountain districts, the
Ottoman conquest and subsequent colonization having introduced a mixed
population into the plains.

The devastation of the country which followed the Turkish invasion resulted
in the extirpation or flight of a large proportion of the Bulgarian
inhabitants of the lowlands, who were replaced by Turkish colonists. The
mountainous districts, however, retained their original population and
sheltered large numbers of the fugitives. The passage of the Turkish armies
during the wars with Austria, Poland and Russia led to further Bulgarian
emigrations. The flight to the Banat, where 22,000 Bulgarians still remain,
took place in 1730. At the beginning of the 19th century the majority of
the population of the Eastern Rumelian plain was Turkish. The Turkish
colony, however, declined, partly in consequence of the drain caused by
military service, while the Bulgarian remnant increased, notwithstanding a
considerable emigration to Bessarabia before and after the Russo-Turkish
campaign of 1828. Efforts were made by the Porte to strengthen the Moslem
element by planting colonies of Tatars in 1861 and Circassians in 1864. The
advance of the Russian army in 1877-1878 caused an enormous exodus of the
Turkish population, of which only a small proportion returned to settle
permanently. The emigration continued after the conclusion of peace, and is
still in progress, notwithstanding the efforts of the Bulgarian government
to arrest it. In twenty years (1879-1899), at least 150,000 Turkish
peasants left Bulgaria. Much of the land thus abandoned still remains
unoccupied. On the other hand, a considerable influx of Bulgarians from
Macedonia, the vilayet of Adrianople, Bessarabia, and the Dobrudja took
place within the same period, and the inhabitants of the mountain villages
show a tendency to migrate into the richer districts of the plains.

The northern slopes of the Balkans from Belogradchik to Elena are inhabited
almost exclusively by Bulgarians; in Eastern Rumelia the national element
is strongest in the Sredna Gora and Rhodope. Possibly the most genuine
representatives of the race are the Pomaks