NOVOTCHERKASSK, capital of the province of the Don Cossacks, is situated 737 miles south-south-east from Moscow, and 40 miles from the sea of Azoff. It was founded in 1805, when the inhabitants of the Tcherkassk stanitsa (now Old Tcherkassk) were compelled to leave their abodes on the banks of the Don on account of the frequent inundations. They were settled on a hill, 300 feet above the low plain, at the junction of the Don with the Aksai, and it was the intention of the authorities to create there, around the chief town of the Don Cossacks, a large agricultural colony; but the want of drinking water proved a great obstacle, and it was decided to transfer Novotcherkassk to another site, when Nicholas I., after a visit in 1837, ordered that it should remain where it was. In 1863 a water-supply was obtained by the construction of an aqueduct 18 miles long, with a steam-engine pumping 325,000 gallons per day. In the following year the town was brought into railway communication with Voronesh and Rostoff, from which last it is 32 miles distant. It is finely situated, and an extensive view over the low prairies of the Don is obtained from the top of the hill. The town has a public garden, a theatre, a clubhouse, and is adorned by the palace and gardens of the ataman of the Cossacks, and by a monument to Platoflf. The educational institutions include a gymnasium for boys, and another for girls, besides several lower schools. Since the introduction of a water-supply and the construction of a branch railway line to the Grushevskiya coal-mines, Novotcherkassk has been developing rapidly; wide suburbs extend to the south-west, and the right bank of the Aksai is dotted with the villas of the Cossack officials. Manufactures, however, make but slow progress; there are only a few ...