The population is extremely mixed. The great majority are Russians • next to them are the Turks or Tartars, and the Baschkirs (about families). Almost the whole of these ignorant, rude, and warlike people inhabit a district at the foot of the Ural chain, which Is called after them, Baschkiria. They live by the of cattle and bees, by the chase, and agriculture. They dwell in the summer under tents made of felt, and in winter in villages. Other components of the population are Finns, Cossake, Teptjiara, Metscheriaks cud Kalmuks, Tehonvachat, Tchorenllases, Mordwina, Kissilbaches, and Armenians.
The women are extremely skilful in weaving and dyeing. The working of the mines employs a great number of hands. But manu facturing industry properly so-called is exerted chiefly on operations connected with mining, in smelting-houses and foundries of the Ural Mountains, in the manufactory of arms at Zlutoust, and in the numerous tanneries, potash factories, and distilleries. Some woollen cloth is manufactured fur the army. The tallow-meltiug houses in the government are numerous.
The commerce of the government is carried on partly with the nomad tribes, who exchange their horses, cattle, furs, carpets, and blankets of felt or wool, for manufactured goods, brass, copper, and iron articles, and partly with the Blirghises and people of Bokham, whose caravans come to Orenburg or Troitsk, the two chief com mercial towns, where there are custom-housea Through the same channel many goods are exported to Khiva, Bokhare, Taschkend, and the Kirghis steppe, the caravans numbering altogether several thousand camels exclusive of horses. The articles exported to the interior of Cuadra in Europe are chiefly the mineral products, many of which are sent to the ports on the Baltic. The caravans from Bokham bring raw and manufactured silk and cotton, and also Cashmere and Persian shawls, indigo, Chinese goods, tea, etc. Asiatic produce is brought to the fair of Nijnoi-Novgorod by way of Oreuburg, the merchandise being forwarded thence in waggon& For public instuction Orenburg depends on the university of Casan, but education is very limited. The Mohammedans study at the high school of Cargill. Most of the Christian inhabitauts are of the Russian Greek religion. The Tartars, the Baschkirs, Kaltnuks, Teptjiars, and Nletatheriaks are Mohammedan& The civil government Is organised like those in Greet Russia, but does not extend to the I:irghises and Cossaks. These are under a military
governor, whose chief business he to provide for the security of the frontier, which is defended towards the Kirghis steppe by a line of fortresses, and by the Cossaks, the Iletacheriaks, the Baschkire, and the Kalmuks, who in consideration of this service are exempt from all taxes to th' Eoverument. The forts on tho line of the Orenburg Cossaks extend from Iletzkaja-Kreposth to the river Tobol in the north, at the distance of 3 miles from each other. From Iletzkaja Kreposth southward to Gnrief on the Caspian, is the line of the Cossaks of the Ural, defended in like manner by a long series of small forts.
Oregsbury. formerly the capital of the government, is situated in 51° 46' N. lat., 52' 31' E. long , in a vast plain near the conflux of the Sakmara and the Ural : it is of an oval form, regularly built, and well fortified. The population is stated to amount to 20,000. There are nine Greek churches, one Lutheran church and school, a military academy for 80 pupils, a great European bazaar with 160 shops in the town, and a bazaar on the Asiatic aide of the river with 492 shops in the Kirghis territory, a league from the town, which is the dep8t for the merchandise of Central Asia and of Russia. The Kirghises bring annually between 300,000 and 400,000 broad-tailed sheep, horses, skins, carpets of divers colours; the Bokhariaos bring gold in grains, Persian gold and silver coin, lapis lazuli, precious stones, black lamb skins. The military governor resides here.
Ufa, the present capital, a fortified town at the conflux of the Ufa and the Bela* has 6000 inhabitants, half of whom are Tartars. Tho public Institutions and buildings are a gymnasium, a poor-house, a lunatio asylum, seven churches and two convents, It is the see of the bishop of Orenburg, and the residence of the Mohammedan Tartar Mufti.
Among the other towns are NVosresensk, population 3500; Alenze linsic, in the north of the government on a feeder of the Bielaia, population 30,000; Serjinsk, population 3000; and Tmitaksja, or Troitek, a free-port in the Asiatic part of the government: popula tion, 3000. Troitsk is a fortified town on the left bank of the Out, a feeder of the Tobol. The steep banks of the river are united by a bridge which connects the town with the:Mr....hie steppe, and leads to a fortified bazaar, in which the products of the steppes of Bukhara and other countries of Central Asia are exposed for sale.