Uralsk Area

Camels are bred in the south-east steppe and reindeer north of lat. 52° N. Pigs are reared in the Irbit-Tobol-Tyumen districts.

Fishing is a supplementary industry in the Urals, but very im portant in the Ob and its tributaries. Even the valuable fisheries of the Lower Ob are feeling the effects of destructive exploitation and there is great need for fishing artels and for the building of factories for salting and preserving. The catch is mainly perch, ruff, silurus, carp, bream, roach, sturgeon, herring and nelma. Hunting is important in the Perm and Upper Kama districts and in Irbit and Tobolsk.

The chief animals hunted are squirrel, hare, elk and deer and heath cock and grouse; others are fox, bear, wolf, marten, ermine, badger, seal, northern deer, and partridge, goose and duck. Hawk hunting is still practised in the steppe regions. Turgut, Obdorsk, Berezov, Tobolsk, Tyumen and Irbit are centres of collection. The latter was noted for its fur fair in February and March, but its importance is diminishing.

Communications.—The Perm-Sverdlovsk-Tyumen line, linked from Sverdlovsk with the Tavda river, Chelyabinsk, Troitsk and Kurgan and with some other centres, is the only one. The link with Perm will be very valuable when the plan to link Kotlas with the Murman railway, and thus provide a winter outlet for the Ural products, is carried out. Though this southern net is a contrast to the absence of lines in much of the area, it is inadequate for the needs of an industrial region. Roads are poor and absent in many places, and the improvement of communications, here as elsewhere in Russia, is a problem facing industry. Sverdlovsk

(q.v.) is the administrative centre, pop. (1926) other towns (q.v.) are Perm 119,42o, Zlatoust, Chelyabinsk and Tyu men, over 47,00o, Kurgan, Sarapul, Tobolsk, Troitsk, Kungur, Irbit. Ishim and Shadrinsk.

Population.

Of Finnish tribes the Permyaks of the Kama river are closely related to the Komi (q.v.) and speak a language resembling theirs. The Voguls (Maniza) are most nu merous in the valley of the Konda, but extend over the Urals and are found in Perm. They are dark, brachycephalic, with broad faces and flat features. Their main occupations are fishing and hunting. The Ugrian Ostyaks are dolichocephalic, short in stature and have some Mongolian features, perhaps due to intermixture with Tatars in the 16th and 17th centuries. Their language is akin to Hungarian. They fish, hunt, and gather cranberries and cedar-nuts. Some have become settled and have built earthen huts, and keep horses and cattle. Their standard of living is higher than that of many tribes, especially amongst the southern. Ostyaks. The northern Ostyaks retain more of their ancient cus toms; they regard the bear with veneration, practice Shamanism and bury their dead in canoes, or leave them in the forest with a covering of skins. In the neighbourhood of Obdorsk are the Yuraks, a branch of the Samoyedes ; who are mainly nomad rein deer breeders, with fishing and hunting as supplementary occupa tions. The Samoyedes of the Yalmal peninsula are prosperous, and have large herds of reindeer. (R. M. F.) See 0. A. Konstantinov, Uralsk Area (1926), in Russian.