Permian sandstones and cupriferous slates cover most of the territory; only a few patches of Jurassic clays overlie them; while in the east, in the Ural parmas, coal-bearing Carboniferous, Devonian, and Silurian slates and limestones appear, covering the crystalline slates of the main ridge. Vast layers of boulder clay and Lacustrine deposits cover the whole. Rock-salt and salt springs, iron ore, millstones, and grindstones are the chief mineral products; but mining is in its infancy.

Vologda is profusely watered; as many as 4800 rivers and streams have been counted on its maps. The Sukhona, which rises in the south-west and flows north-east past Vologda, Totma, and Velikiy Ustyug, is navigable for 375 miles. After its junction with the Yug (390 miles long), which comes from the south, it becomes the Dwina, which flows north-west, and receives the Vytchegda, another great river, 740 miles long and navigable for 570 miles, which, however, waters a nearly uninhabited region. The Luza, a tributary of the Yug, is also navigated for more than 250 miles. The Petchora, which flows through eastern Vologda, is an artery for the export of corn and the import of fish in the Petchora region, otherwise difficult of access. The Pinega, the Mezen, and the Vaga, all belonging to the Arctic basin, rise in northern Vologda. In the south-west the Sukhona is connected by means of Lake Kuben-skoye and the canal of Alexander of Würtemberg with the upper Volga. Numberless smaller lakes occur, and marshes cover a considerable part of the surface.

The climate is severe, the average yearly temperature being 36° F. at Vologda (Jan., 10° ∙7; July, 63 o∙ 5) and 32° ∙5 at Ust-Sysolsk (Jam, 4 ∙8; July, 61 o∙ 7).

The flora and the physical aspects present a great variety of characters as the traveller moves north-east down the Sukhona and up the Vytchegda, towards the parmas of the Petchora. In the south-west the forests are cleared, and the dry slopes of the hills are covered with fields and meadows; the population is relatively dense, and nearly one-quarter of the area is under crops. There is a surplus of grain, which is used for distilleries; and apples are extensively cultivated. The flora is middle-Russian. Farther to the north-east the climate grows more severe; but still, until the Dwina is reached, corn succeeds well, and there is no lack of excellent meadows on the river-terraces. Flax is cultivated for export; but only 4 per cent. of the area is tilled, the remainder being covered with thick fir forests, with occasional woods of deciduous trees (birch, aspen, elder). At about the 46th degree of east longitude the larch appears and soon supersedes the fir. Several plants unknown in western Russia make their appearance (Silene tartarica, Anthyllus vulneraria, Euphorbia palustris, Filago arvensis, Lycopodium complanatum, Sanguisorba officinalis). The Veratrum is especially characteristic: it sometimes encroaches on the meadows to such an extent as to compel their abandonment. The region of the upper Mezen (the Udora) again has a distinctive character. The winter is so protracted, and the snowfall so copious, that the Zyrians are sometimes compelled to clear away the snow from their barley-fields. But the summer is so hot (a mean of 54° for the three summer months) that barley ripens within forty days after being sown. The Timansk plateaus are a marked boundary for the middle-Russian flora. Those to the east of them are uninhabitable; even on the banks of the rivers the climate is so severe, especially on account of the icy northern winds, that rye and barley are mostly grown only in orchards. The whole is covered with quite impenetrable forests, growing on a soil permeated with water. Mosquitoes swarm in the forests; birds are rare. The Siberian cedar begins, and the lime-tree disappears. Fir, cedar, pine, and larch chiefly compose the forests, with birch and aspen on their outskirts. Hunting is the chief occupation of the Zyrian inhabitants.

The population (1,172, 250 in 1883 as against 960,850 in 1861), consists chiefly of Great Russians (88 per cent.), and Zyrians (12 per cent.; only 7 per cent. according to Rittich). The Zyrians —a Finnish stem akin to the Permians—constitute the bulk of the population on the Ural slopes. They formerly inhabited the Kama and Vyatka basins, and call themselves Komi-yurt, or Komi-yas, and in the 14th century the Russians hardly distinguished them from the Permians; but they were compelled to migrate northwards into the basins of the Dwina and Petchora, and even across the Urals, by the religious fanaticism of the earlier Christian missionaries. A portion of them now live in Archangel (about 15,000), and their aggregate numbers are estimated at from 100,000 to 120,000, but the figures are very uncertain, as they are often hardly distinguishable from the Russians, whose religion and habits they have assumed. They differ widely from the western Finns in having dark eyes and hair; their honesty is proverbial, as also is their industry. They grow corn amidst the forests, after having patiently cleared them, and rear cattle, but are pre-eminently hunters. Their “artels,” guided by a primitive compass, penetrate hundreds of miles into the virgin forests, and bring in vast quantities of squirrel furs and feathered game; they fell timber for export, and gather cedar-nuts, but in doing so are rapidly destroying the cedar-tree.

The chief occupation of the Russians is agriculture, and the average crops of 1883 to 1885 were rye, 785,000 quarters; barley, 926,000; oats, 925,000; other grains, 197,000; and potatoes, 107,000 quarters. In 1883 they had 229,500 horses, 520,200 cattle, and 392,900 sheep. They also fell timber, prepare tar, pitch, and potash, and manufacture wooden utensils. In the south-west they pursue a variety of domestic trades (spinning, weaving, sewing of plain cloth, &c. ). The manufacturing industry is represented by a few ironworks, distilleries, paper-mills, and a variety of small manufactures; their aggregate production was only £274,500 in 1884. Salt was raised in 1881-84 to the average amount of 65,000 cwts. Flax, linen cloth, linseed, butter, tar, pitch, timber, and furs are the main items of export, the chief centres for trade being Vologda, Verkhovajsk, and Ustyug.

Vologda is divided into ten districts, the chief towns (with populations in 1881) being Vologda (17,025), Gτyazovets (2225), Kadnikoff (1520), Nikolsk (1880), Solvytchegodsk (1320), Totma (3380), Ustyug Velikiy (7980), Ust-Sysolsk (4100), Velsk (1410), and Yarensk (1250).

VOLOGDA, capital of the above government, is situated in its south-western corner, 302 miles to the north-east of Moscow, with which it is connected by rail via Yaroslavl. It is an old town, having many relics of the past in its churches, including one which dates from the 12th century, and the cathedral founded in 1565. The educational institutions are in a better state than in many other provincial towns. Vologda, though a place of only 17,025 inhabitants in 1881, is a considerable commercial centre,—flax, linseed, oats, hemp, butter, and eggs being bought to a large amount in the neighbouring districts and in Vyatka, and exported both to St Petersburg and Archangel.

Vologda existed as a place of commerce as early as the 12th century. It was a colony of Novgorod, and, owing to its advantageous position and the enterprise of the Novgorod merchants, it grew to be a populous city. It carried on a brisk trade in flax, tallow, and furs, which were sent in from Ustyug Velikiy,—another important colony of Novgorod; while the Byelo-ozero merchants brought to Vologda and Ustyug corn, leather, and various manufactured goods to be bartered against furs, or to be shipped to Klołmogory, at the mouth of the Dwina. In 1273 it was plundered by the prince of Tver in alliance with the Tartars, but soon recovered. Moscow disputed its possession with Novgorod until the 15th century; the Moscow princes intrigued to find support amidst the poorer inhabitants against the richer Novgorod merchants, and four successive times Vologda had to fight against its metropolis. It was definitely annexed to Moscow in 1447. When Archangel was founded, and opened for foreign trade in 1553, Vologda became the chief depôt for goods exported through that channel. They were brought on sledges from Moseow, Yaroslavl, and Kostroma; and special yams, or post stations, were maintained to connect Vologda with Moscow. Many foreigners lived at Vologda; Fletcher, the British envoy, stayed there, and the first Russian envoy to Britain came originally from Vologda. Polish bands plundered it in 1613, and the plague of 1648 devastated it; but it maintained its commercial importance until the foundation of St Petersburg, when Russian foreign trade took another channel.