PODOLSK, a district-town of Russia, in the government of Moscow, is situated 23 miles to the south of the capital, at the junction of the two main roads going from Moscow to the Crimea and to Warsaw, and within a mile from the Podolsk railway station. It is picturesquely built on the hilly banks of the Pakhra, here crossed by an elegant suspension bridge for carriages as well as by the railway bridge. Down to 1781, when it became a district town, the wealthy village of Podol was a dependency of the Daniloff monastery of Moscow, and it still maintains many of the features of a suburb of that city. The numberless caravans of cars and sledges which before the opening of the southern railway carried on the entire transport of merchandise to and from Moscow (as they still to some extent continue to do) had their chief halting place at Podolsk before setting out on a long journey, or before entering the capital; the principal occupation of the inhabitants was accordingly to keep inns and taverns, and to supply the caravans with provisions and other necessaries of travel. The merchants of Podolsk prefer to carry on their trade at Moscow, and in itself the town has no commercial importance. Still, notwithstanding the recent modifications iπ rtraffic produced by the railway system, the population of Podolsk (11,000 in 1881) is increasing. The limestone quarries in the neighbourhood, at the confluence of the Desna and Pakhra, supply the capital with a good building material, while a steam factory of cement, lime, and bricks employs 900 hands and has an annual production of about <£20,000. A paper-mill close to Podolsk has an annual production of about JΠ5,000.