THE URAL MOUNTAINS form another great mineral reserve of Russia, in which are found gold, platinum, copper, iron, and coal, as well as other substances. The production of iron is the most important industry of the region; and the Ural works, with about 20 per cent. of the national output, rank next to those of South Russia in this respect. There is, however, a great contrast in the methods employed in the two districts. The Ural is dependent on wood for fuel, the labour and capital is entirely Russian, the processes are old-fashioned, and it is only recently, and to a limited extent, that railways have supplied the means of transport. Of the world's supply of platinum about 95 per cent. is obtained from the Ural, chiefly from the government of Perm.
COMMUNICATIONS.—Before the introduction of railways the rivers of European Russia formed the chief means of transport within the country, notwithstanding the fact that they were closed by ice for a period which varied, according to the position of their basins, from three to six months each year. Among the more important of these rivers are the Volga, the Dnieper, the Don, the Vistula, the Niemen, the Neva, and the Dwina, but it is estimated that the total navigable waterways of European Russia have a length of about 50,000 miles, though only 16,000 miles are suitable for steam ships. The basin of the Volga is connected with that of the Neva
by three canals; while the Dnieper is connected with the Western Dwina, the Niemen and the Vistula.
European Russia possesses about 35,000 miles of railway. Moscow may be regarded as the geographical centre of the system, and from it lines radiate in all directions, among the most important being those which connect the former capital with Warsaw, whence there are connections with Berlin; with Odessa and other ports on the Black Sea; with St. Petersburg,Archangel, Siberia, and Turkestan. From St. Petersburg there are several important lines ; one runs by Viborg to Helsingfors and Abo with connections to other parts of Finland ; another connects the capital with the ports on the Baltic ; a third goes by Vilna where it divides, one branch going to Warsaw, and the other to Eydtkuhnen on the Prussian frontier, where it meets the line from Berlin by way of Konigsberg. The capital is also connected with the trans-Siberian railway at Chelia binsk by a line which runs eastwards through Perm and Ekaterin burg. A railway from the latter town to Tiumen is being continued to Omsk, while a line from Samara by Orenburg connects the trans-Siberian and trans-Caspian railways.