VOLGA, the largest river of Europe; rises in the central Russian province of Tver, near the Dwina, about 200 miles from the Gulf of Finland; flows S. E. through several small lakes, receiving the Selicharovka from Lake Seliger, then S. E. past Rsjev to Subzov, where it turns N. E., passing Tver and Ry binsk, then S. E. through the provinces of Jaroslav, Kostroma, Nijni Novgorod, and Kasan, passing Nijni Novgorod and Kasan, and receiving from the right the Oka, and from the left the Mologa, Kos troma, Unsha, and Wetluga. At Kasan it turns S., receives from the left the great Kama and the Samara, and from inces of Simbirsk, Saratov, Samara, and the right the Sura, separates the prov passes the towns of Simbirsk, Samara, Sysran, Wolsk, and Saratov. At Sarepta it turns sharply to the S. E. and flows in that direction to the Caspian, which it enters by 8 principal and 200 smaller mouths, forming a delta 68 miles in breadth. Besides those named, about 100 smaller tributaries join this giant river, which with its affluents has a drainage area of 563,300 square miles, waters 22 provinces, and measures from its source to its mouth 2,300 miles. Its breadth at Tver is 705 feet, at the mouth of the Mologa 1,542 feet, above the influx of Kama 4,920 feet and opposite the mouth of the Kama nearly 5 miles. The course
of the Volga is very slow, its total fall is only 896 feet, and its channel is com paratively shallow, its greatest depth being 85 feet. The Volga is free from ice for 200 days in the year, in Kos troma, Jaroslav, and Kasan for 152. Steamers ply regularly on its waters between Tver and Nijni Kasan, and Astrakhan; and from Nijni Novgorod by the Kama to Perm, by the Oka to Riazan, by the Ufa to Ufa, and by the Unsha to Ugor. The three great canal systems of Vishni-Volotchok, Tichvin, and the Marien canal, connect ing the Volga with Petrograd, and the canal of the Duke of Wurttemberg join ing it with the Dwina, make an un broken water way between the Baltic and the Caspian Sea. A canal to join the Volga with the Don, between Zari zyn at Katchalinsk, was projected by Peter the Great, but was never executed. Its purpose is now effected by the Zar izyn-Kalatsch railway. The Volga has extensive fisheries, chiefly of salmon and sturgeon.