KIEFF, KIEV, KIEW, or KOW

KIEFF, KIEV, KIEW, or KOW, a government of European Russia, bounded N. by Minsk, E. by Tchernigov and Poltava, S. by Kherson, S.W. and W. by Podolia and Volhynia; area 19,000 square miles. The general surface is flat or undulating, with some low ranges parallel to the river courses. The principal river is the Dnieper, which divides the province from Tchernigov and Poltava about 250 miles of its course. Its chief tributaries are the Pripetz, Testerev, Irpen, Stugena, Ros, and Tiasmin. The climate is remark-

ably temperate, though the summer heat is often extreme. The population, amounting in 1850 to 1,638,000, are chiefly occupied in agriculture and cattle-breeding. The peasants are mostly serfs. The vegetable productions include grain of all kinds, hemp, flax, and tobacco. Excellent timber grows extensively in the north. The cattle are large and of good breed, and are fattened in great numbers for exportation. The manufactures are unimportant, the most extensive being that of beetroot sugar. Trade is chiefly in the hands of the Jews, who are numerous.