VOLGA. The largest river of Russia as well as of the whole Of Europe. It rises among a cluster of lakes and marshes in the Valdai Hills i11 flu of Tvcr, 205 miles southeast of Saint Petersburg, and flows in a generally southeastward course, though it describes a large zigzag with sharp bends at Salmi ra nd Tsa ritsyn, betW(P11 its POW'S(' runs to the southwest. It (mipties through a large delta into the Caspian Sea, after a course of about 2300 miles (Map: Russia, G 5). Its total fall from its source to its mouth is less than 900 feet, and its current is throughout tranquil and regular, wholly without falls or rapids, so that the river is navigable almost to its source. The extreme upper portion of the river flows between wooded hills, lint after leaving the Valdai platran the entire remainder of its eourse lies within the great plains. The right hank is generally higher than the left, and for a. eonsiderable distance along the middle course it is lined by a limestone escarpment with steep, wooded cliffs, a spur of which deflects the river at Samara in a long. narrow loop 50 miles to the eastward. The left bank „is low, and in 5011Itt places along the middle course it is lined with great marshes and trembling forests, in which the trees are supported by soil floating on soft 11111(1. In the lower course both banks are low, but dry, owing to the rapid evaporation. here the river receives practically no tributaries, and flows through saline steppes lying below sea level. Below Tsaritsyn the river begins to divide into a number of parallel arms, but the true alluvial delta begins only a short distance above Astrakhan. The delta is about 70 miles wide, and
consists of eight large and numerous smaller arms which are all merged together under a single sheet of water during the floods. The main channel near its month is several miles wide; below the eonfluenee of the Kama the width of the river is 1501) yards, and at Tver it is about 200 yards.
In some places the channel is nearly 100 feet deep, in others it is scareely more than four or five feet in the lower and two or three feet in the upper The quantity of sediment deposit ed seems to increase from year to year; shoals and sandbars are continually formed, and a num ber of dredging machines have to he kept con stantly at work. The chief tributaries of the Volga are the Kama from the east, a large river in itself, and the Oka from the west. The whole system waters twenty-two of the Russian gov ernments, and has a total navigable length of 0000 miles. Steamers ?iseend the main stream for more than 2000 miles. Though the river is ice bound more than one-third of the year, the traffic is enormous, amounting to over 14,000.01)0 tons of goods annually, or more than one-fourth of the total traffic on all the Russian railroads. The principal articles carried are timber, grain, salt, and naphtha. The chief ports on the river are, in the order of their shipping, Astrakhan, Nizhni Novgorod, Tsaritsyn, and Saratov. Connected with the Volga is a vast canal system, through which communication is established between the river and the Black, Baltic. and White seas. The fisheries in the Volga are very important.