fly employed in the trade.
Much of the produce shipped here comes from Rostov-on-the-Don, the
chief centre of inland trade in the south-east provinces of Russia,
and one in which many industries (especially the manipulation of tobacco
grown in the Caucasus and the Crimea), are pursued. A short distance
above this great mart is Novocherkask, the capital of the "Country
of the Don Cossacks," anciently the abode of Scythians, Sarmatians,
Huns, Bolgars, Khazars and Tartars. The present population dates
from the Sixteenth Century, when renegades from Muscovy and vagrants
of every description formed themselves into Cossack, or robber
communities. They attacked the Tartars and Turks, and in 1637 took
the Turkish fortress of Azof. Under the reign of Peter the Great
the powerful and independent Cossacks were not much interfered with,
but from 1718 they were gradually brought under subjection to the
Tsar, whom they powerfully assisted in subsequent wars. The town
was founded in 1804, and is adorned with a bronze monument to the
famous Hetman (Ataman or chief) Platof, leader of the Cossacks between
1770 and 1816. It is usual to bestow on the Russian heir-apparent
the title of "Ataman" of the Don Cossacks. The last investiture
with Cossack _baton_ took place in 1887, when also the reigning
Emperor confirmed, at a "circle," or open-air assemblage, all the
ancient rights and privileges of the warlike Cossacks of the Don.

[Illustration: KHARKOF.]

The chief town of the Kuban district is Ekaterinodar, a name which
signifies, literally, "Catherine's gift," from having been founded
by the sovereign of that name and bestowed, in 1792, together with
the adjacent territory, on the Zaporogian, subsequently known as the
Black Sea Cossacks. Catherine mistrusted their power and influence,
and tempted them to the Kuban with grants of land and other privileges.
The first service of some 20,000 of those new warrior settlers
consisted in barring all egress from the mountains, by means of a
"first fortified line" of stations that extended to Vladikavkas,
where they united with the descendants of the Grebenski Cossacks,
with whom they are not to be confounded. The predominant type amongst
the Zaporogians is still that of the Little Russians, the Grebenski
continuing to preserve their identity with the natives of Great
Russia, whence their origin; and although the whole of this imposing
force, maintained at half a million, has long since adopted th