SUWALKI, a government of Russian Poland, occupies the north-east corner of the kingdom, extending to the north between East Prussia and the Russian governments of Kovno, Vilna, and Grodno. Its area is 4846 square miles. It covers the east of the low swelling, studded with lakes, which skirts the south coast of the Baltic (see Poland), its highest parts reaching 800 to 1000 feet above the sea. Its northern slopes descend to the valley of the lower Niemen, while in the south it falls away gently to the marshy tract of the Bebrz. The rivers flow there in deep gorges and valleys, diversifying the surface. Suwalki is watered by the Niemen, which forms its eastern and its northern boundary and is largely used as a channel of communication: it has many affluents from both slopes of the swelling. The Augustowo Canal connects the navigable Hancza, tributary of the Niemen, with a tributary of the Bebrz, which belongs to the basin of the Vistula, and an active traffic is carried on on this canal. The population was 606,573 in 1883, the increase being 3400 during the year. It has a most varied composition, embracing Lithuanians (the prevailing element), who number about four-tenths of the whole (Zhmuds, 31·5 per cent.; Lithuanians proper, 10·3), Poles (28·4, of whom 5·3 are Mazurs), Jews (17·2), Germans (6·8, but they are rapidly increasing), and White Russians (4·6). In religion the Catholics are predominant (449,476 in 1883); the Jews come next (98,743); there are also 38,610 Protestants, 13,275 Orthodox Greeks, and 6246 Raskolniks....
Tertiary and Chalk deposits are widely spread in Suwatki, and the entire surface is covered with Post-Tertiary deposits. The bottom moraine of the great ice-sheet of North Germany, containing scratched boulders and furrowed by depressions having a direction north-north-east to south-south-west, covers immense tracts of the ridge of the lake-districts and its slopes, while limited spaces are covered with well-washed glacial sands and gravel. On the northern slopes of the coast-ridge, the boulder-clay being covered with lacustrine deposits, there are at many places layers of fertile soil; and in the southern parts of the province the boulder-clay is very stony, and sometimes covered with gravel. Still, nearly nine-tenths of the surface are considered suitable for cultivation. Agriculture is the chief occupation, and potatoes are extensively grown for export to Prussia, where they are used for the manufacture of spirits, which are smuggled into the province. The manufactures are unimportant (600 workmen; annual produce valued at £124,000, one-half being due to distilleries). All manufactured wares are imported, mostly from Prussia; and all trade is in the hands of Jews. The educational institutions include two gymnasia for boys, one for girls, one seminary for teachers (at Weiwery), one Catholic seminary, and 196 lower grade schools, having altogether an aggregate of 13,193 scholars in 1884. Suwatki is divided into seven districts, the chief towns of which with their populations in 1882 were— Suwalki (see below), Augustowo (11,100), Kalwarya (10,600), Mariampol (5610), Seiny (4035), Wilkowiszki (6700), and Wfadistawow (9300). Wierzbolowo (3550), an important customhouse, situated on the railway from St Petersburg to Berlin, also has municipal institutions.
SUWALKI, capital of the above government, is situated at the source of the Hancza, tributary of the Niemen, 75 miles north-west of Grodno. In the 15th century it was but a small village, lost amidst forests, and peopled by Lithuanians. In the end of the 18th century it became the capital of the Augustowo government, but never had any importance, except as the seat of the local authorities. Since 1834 it has been the capital of the government of Suwatki. Its population was 18,640 in 1882.
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