OREN BURG, a government of Russia, partly in Asia and partly in Europe, is situated between 47' and 56' N. lat., 50' 20' and 64 20' I:. long., and is bounded N. by the government of Perm, N.W. by Waal' ; W. by Cason, Simbirsk, Seratov, and Astrakhan; E. and S. by the Kirghiz steppe, and N.E. by Tomsk and Toboisk. The area of the government is 119,094 square miles. If the country of the Uralian Cossaks, which is generally looked upon as a dependency of Orenburg, and is by some included under that name, be added, the total area of Orenburg will amount to 143,317 square miles. The area given above is taken from the last official return. But since that return was issued a new government named Sarum has been formed by imperial ukase (December 18, 1850), on the left of the Volga, from districts formerly belonging to Eimbirsk, Orenburg, and Saratov. A large portion of Orenburg comprised between the ObcheI-Siert Mountains, dritioed by the Somers and the Kindel (which unite before they join the Volga), and measuring 21,393 square miles, is now included in the government of Samara. Accordingly the area of the government of Orenburg is reduced to 96,701 square miles, with a population of 1,192,523. It is divided into 12 circles.
Towards the south, in the country of the Coseake of the Ural, the surface is a steppe, which is destitute of trees, and only produces the plants peculiar to saline countries. Beyond the mountains it is a plain intersected by moraases and a great number of lake.; on the European side of the mountains the surface is undulating, remarkably varied, and often very picturesque. To the north, where the Ural chain enters the government, it is called the Baschkirian Ural ; the part which runs directly south, parallel with the river Ural to its sudden bend from east to west, is called the Gouberlin Mountains, branches of which, atretclaing from cast to west, extend into the government, and form what is called the Obehel-Siert The base of the Ural chain is granite; the upper rocks are calcareous and quartz, sometimes bare and covered with erratic blocks, and some times covered with a sufficient dgpth of send and earth for the trees to take root. Immense caverns open into the interior of three moun tains. The whole of the western or European part of the government is fertile. The principal river is the Ural, which forme part of the boundary between Europe and Ards. It rises in the Ural Mountains in the district of Troitsk, and forming in part of its course the western boundary between Orenburg and Astrakhan, discharges itself by several mouths into the Caspian in 47' N. lat. Its entire course, which is
rapid and winding, but without falls, is above 1600 miles; its breadth, which is only 60 feet at Orskaia, and 150 feet at Orenburg, increases to 450 feet, but the water is so shallow that it is navigable only for very light vessel& Other rivers are the Kama, the Sakmara, which falls into the Una!, and the Belaia, at the conflux of which with the Ufa, the chief town Ufa is situated. There are numerous lakes, salt as well as fresh, on both sides of the Ural Mountains. The climate varies considerably between the north and the south ; and it is much more rigorous to the east than to the west of the UM chain. In the steppes the beat in summer is very great. The winter is generally cold, and even in summer the nights are cool. Whirlwinds and hurricanes are frequent, and transitions from heat to cold are sudden. The want of rein and the swarms of locusts are very distresaiug. especially in the south.
Natural Productions.—Agriculture is tolerably flourishing, and is favuured by the goodness of the soiL The chief grains are rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, and millet. The inhabitants grow but little flax, hemp, tobacco, and vegetables. The forests are of immense extent, but there is an enormous consumption of wood in the forges, for making charcoal, for the preparation of tar and potash, and for building houses and barks. Game is abundant in the forests, and the lakes abound in water-fowL The golden eagle of the Ural is tamed and trained fur the chafe. The chief wealth of the government consists in its horses and cattle. The former, which are of Tartar or Baschkirian breed, are handsome and strong; the 13aschkirs and Metscheriaks have herds of 200, 1000, and even 2000 horses; the Russians, the Cossaks, and the Tartars, of 50 or 100 horsea. All have great numbers of oxen, goats, and more especially sheep, of which a nomad will have from 500 to 4000, and the stationary inhabitants400 to 500. The Christians possess great numbers of swine; the nomad rears camels or drome daries. The fishery in the Belaia and the Kama suffices fur the con sumption of the inhabitaks ; and that in the Ural is a source of considerable advantage to the Cosaak& This government possesses likewise great mineral wealth—gold in the Ural Mountains, copper, iron, and a great quantity of salt, which is procured from the mines of Iletzk, where the rock-salt is found 4 or 5 feet under the sand in beds covered with gypsum ; the Cosseks however obtain their salt from the lakes. The other mineral products ere asphalt, sulphur, vitriol, marble, alabaster, agates, &c.