it has an extensive range. It also occurs on the northern shores of the Mediterranean, and has strayed to such a distance as to have suffered capture in England and even in Norway. Of the genera composing the other subfamily, Vulturinae, Gyps numbers seven or eight local species and races, on more than one of which the English name griffon has been fastened. The best known is G. fulvus, which by some authors is accounted “British” from an example having been taken in Ireland, though under circumstances which suggest its appearance so far from its nearest home in Spain to be due to man's intervention. The species, however, has a wider distribution on the European continent (especially towards the north-east) than the Egyptian vulture, and in Africa nearly reaches the Equator, extending also in Asia to the Himalaya; but both in the Ethiopian and Indian regions its range inosculates with that of several allied forms or species. Pseudogyps with two forms—one Indian, the other African—differs from Gyps by having 12 instead of 14 rectrices. Of the genera Otogyps and Lophogyps nothing here need be said; and then we have Vultur, with, as mentioned before, its sole representative, V. monachus, commonly known as the cinereous vulture, a bird which is found from the Straits of Gibraltar to the seacoast of China. Almost all these birds inhabit rocky cliffs, on the ledges of which they build their nests.
The question whether vultures in their search for food are guided by sight of the object or by its scent has excited much interest. It seems to be now generally admitted that the sense of sight is in almost every case sufficient to account for the observed facts. (A. N.)
VURJEEVANDAS MADHOWDAS (1817–1896), Hindu merchant of Bombay, of the Kapole Bania caste, was born on the 28th of January 1817 at Gogia, in Kathiawar, whence his father came to Bombay with Sheth Manoredas for trading purposes. Vurjeevandas was educated in Bombay, started a new firm under the name of Vurjeevandas & Sons, and soon became one of the wealthiest merchants in Bombay. He was appointed a justice of the peace and a member of the Bombay Port Trust. He took a keen interest in the Royal Asiatic Society and the Bombay university, where a prize has been established to commemorate his name. He constructed the Madhow Bang in memory of his father, and gave it to the use of poor Hindus, endowing it with nearly five lakhs of rupees. He built a rest-house in Bombay in memory of his brother Mooljibhoy, and another one at Nasik. The sanatorium which he built in memory of his youngest son Rumhoredas at Sion Hill is a great boon to the poor people of his community. He also established a dispensary at Matoonga and a fund for the relief of indigent Hindus. He died on the 12th of January 1896.
VYATKA, or Viatka, a government of N.E. Russia, with the government of Vologda on the N., Perm on the E., Ufa and Kazan on the S. and Nizhniy-Novgorod and Kostroma on the W., having an area of 59,100 sq. m. It has on its northern boundary the flat water-parting which separates the basins of the Northern Dvina and the Volga, and its surface is an undulating plateau 800 to 1400 ft. above sea-level, deeply grooved by rivers and assuming a hilly aspect on their banks. The Kama rises in the N.E., and, after making a wide sweep through Perm, flows along its S.E. boundary, while the rest of the government is drained by the Vyatka and its numerous tributaries. Both the Kama and the Vyatka are navigable, as also are several tributaries; the Izh and Votka, which flow into the Vyatka, have important ironworks on their banks. The only railway is one from Perm to Archangel, through the town of Vyatka; the government is traversed by the great highway to Siberia, and by two other roads by which goods from the south are transported to loading-places on the Vychegda and the Yug to be shipped to Archangel. Lakes are numerous, and vast marshes exist everywhere, especially in the north. The climate is very severe, the average yearly temperature being 36° F. at Vyatka (January, 8·2°; July, 67·0°) and 35° at Slobodsk (January, 3·5°; July, 65·3°).
The estimated pop. in 1906 was 3,532,600. The bulk of the inhabitants (78%) are Russians; Votyaks make 12·2%, Cheremisses 5%, and Tatars 3¾%, the remainder being Bashkirs, Teptyars and Permyaks. The Votyaks (Otyaks), a Finnish tribe, call themselves Ot, Ut or Ud, and the Tatars call them Ar, so that they may possibly be akin to the Ars of the Yenisei. They are middle-sized, with fair hair and eyes, often red-haired; and the general structure of the face and skull is Finnish. By their dialect they belong to the same branch as the Permyaks.
The government is divided into eleven districts, the chief towns of which are Vyatka, Elabuga, Glazov, Kotelnich, Malmyzh, Nolinsk, Orlov, Sarapul, Slobodsk, Urzhum and Yaransk. Izhevsk and Votkinsk, or Kamsko-Votkinsk, have important ironworks. Some 55% of the surface is covered with forests, two-thirds of which belong to the crown, and hunting (especially squirrel-hunting) and fishing are of commercial importance. The peasants, who form 89% of the population, own 44% of the whole government, the crown 53% and private persons 2%. The soil is fertile, especially in the valleys of the south. Vyatka is one of the chief grain-producing governments of Russia. The principal crops are rye, wheat, oats, barley and potatoes. Flax and hemp are extensively cultivated, and large numbers of cattle are kept, but they are mostly of inferior breed. The government has a race of good ponies that are widely exported. Domestic industries occupy large numbers of the inhabitants. The principal manufacturing establishments are tanneries, distilleries, ironworks, chemical works, glass factories, cotton and steam flour-mills, and hardware, machinery, paper and fur-dressing works. (P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)
VYATKA, a town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, on the Vyatka river, 304 m. by rail W.N.W. of Perm. Pop. 24,782. It is built on the steep hills which rise above the river and at their base. Its old walls have been demolished, and its old churches built anew. It is an episcopal see and has a fine cathedral. Its manufactures include silver and copper wares, and ecclesiastical ornaments, and it has an important trade in corn, leather, tallow, candles, soap, wax, paper and furs (exported), and in manufactured and grocery wares (imported). Vyatka was founded in 1181 by the Novgorodians, as Khlynov. In 1391 it was plundered by the Tatars, and again in 1477. Moscow annexed Khlynov in 1489. It received the name of Vyatka in 1780.
VYAZMA, a town of Russia, in the government of Smolensk, 109 m. by rail E.N.E. of the town of Smolensk. Pop. 15,676. It was a populous place as early as the 11th century, and carried on a lively trade with Narva on the Gulf of Finland. In the 15th century it fell under the dominion of Lithuania, but was retaken by the Russians. The Poles took it again in 1611, and kept it till the peace of 1634. It is now an important centre for trade. It has a cathedral, dating from 1596.
VYERNYI (formerly Almaty), a town and fort of Asiatic Russia, capital of the province of Semiryechensk, 50 m. N. of Lake Issyk-kul, at the northern foot of the Trans-Ili Ala-tau Mountains, at an altitude of 2440 ft. Pop. 24,798. Founded in 1854, it is well-built, provided with boulevards and surrounded by luxuriant gardens. It has a cathedral, being an archiepiscopal see of the Orthodox Greek Church, a school of gardening and sericulture, a public library, and a few distilleries, tanneries and oil works. Situated at the intersection of two roads—from Kulja to Tashkent, and from Semipalatinsk to Kashgar—Vyernyi carries on an active trade in wheat, rice, corn, tea, oil and tobacco. It was the centre of a remarkable earthquake on the 9th of June 1887.
VYRNWY (Fyrnwy), an artificial lake or reservoir in the north-west of Montgomeryshire, N. Wales, constructed for the Liverpool water-supply. It was formed by damming the river Vyrnwy, which runs through Montgomeryshire and joins the Severn above Shrewsbury (see Water-Supply).
VYSHNIY-VOLOCHOK, a town of Russia, in the government of Tver, 74 m. by rail N.W. of the city of Tver. Pop. 16,722. The place owes its importance to its situation in the centre of the Vyshne-Volotsk navigation system (540 m. long, constructed by Peter the Great in 1703–9), which connects the upper Volga with the Neva. The portage (volok) is less than 17 m. between the Tvertsa, a tributary of the Volga, and the Tsna, which flows into the Msta and the Volkhov (Lake Ladoga); but boats now prefer the Mariinsk system.
