Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Taurida

TAURIDA, a government of southern Russia, includes the peninsula of Crimea (q.v.) and a tract of mainland situated between the lower Dnieper and the coasts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azoff, and is bounded by these two seas on the S., while it has on the N. the governments of Kherson and Ekaterinoslaff. The area is 24,540 square miles, of which 6990 square miles belong to the Crimea; its continental part consists of a gently undulating steppe of black earth, with only a few patches of salt clay on the banks of the Sivash or Putrid Sea, and sands in the lower course of the Dnieper. It is watered by the Dnieper, which flows along the frontier for 180 miles, and by two small rivers, the Molotchnaya and Berda. Many small lakes and ponds occur in the north, especially among the Dnieper sands, as well as on the Kinburn peninsula, at the mouth of the Dnieper, where salt is made. There are no forests except the artificial plantations in the colonies of the Mennonites. The climate is continental, and resembles that of central Crimea and Kherson. The population in 1883 was 940,530 (247,780 in Crimea). The continental portion, although less mixed than that of the peninsula, consists of Russians (Great, Little, and White Russians), who constitute 83 per cent. of the population, Germans (11 per cent.), Bulgarians (5 per cent.), and Jews (1 per cent.).

Agriculture and cattle-breeding are the leading occupations. Wheat is the chief product, and by the Germans and Russian Nonconformists on the Molotchnaya agriculture is carried to a high degree of perfection. In 1882 there were within the government 356,270 horses, 485,800 cattle, and 3,985,300 sheep (2,891,700 merinos). Salt is made both on the mainland and in the Crimea, and the fisheries along the coast supply an export trade. Manufactures are insignificant, but there is a brisk export trade in grain, salt, fish, wool, and tallow. The main centres of trade are the Kakhovka port on the Dnieper, Berdyansk on the Sea of Azoff, and the seaports of Eupatoria, Sebastopol, Sudak, and Theodosia. The government is divided into eight districts, the chief towns of which (with populations in 1881) are Simferopol (29,030), capital of the government, Eupatoria (13,420), and Theodosia (10,800) in Crimea, and Aleshki (8915), Berdyansk (18,180), Melitopol (13,310), Perekop (4280), and Yalta (3000) on the continent. Several villages, such as Bolshoy Tokmak (8000) and Andreevka (7300), have each a population of more than 5000.