1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Warsaw (government)

WARSAW, a government of Russian Poland, occupying a narrow strip of land west of the lower Bug and west of the Vistula from its confluence with the Bug to the Prussian frontier. It is bounded by the Polish governments of Plock and Lomza on the N., Siedlce on the E., and Radom, Piotrkow and Kalisz on the S. Area 5605 sq. m .; estimated pop. (1906) 2,269,000. It occupies the great plain of central Poland, and is low and flat, with only a few hills in the south, and along the course of the Vistula in the north-west, where the terraces on the left bank descend by steep slopes to the river. Terrible inundations often devastate the region adjacent to the confluence of the Vistula with the Narew and Bug, and marshes gather in the low-lying grounds. The soil, which consists chiefly of boulder clay, lacustrine clays, and sandy fluviatile deposits, is not particularly fertile. The government is divided into thirteen districts, the chief towns of which are Warsaw, Błonie, Gostynin, Grojec, Kutno, Lowicz, Neszawa, Novo-Minsk, Plonsk, Radzymin, Skierniewice, Sochaczew and Wloclawek. In spite of the infertile soil, agriculture is prosecuted with considerable success. Manufacturing industries have also greatly developed.