OLONETS  , a

government of north-western Russia, extending from Lake Ladoga almost to the White Sea, bounded W. by Finland, N. and E. by Archangel and Vologda, and S. by Novgorod and St Petersburg . The area is 57,422 sq. m., of which 6794 sq. m. are lakes . Its north-western portion belongs orographically and geologically to the Finland region; it is thickly dotted with hills reaching loon ft. in altitude, and diversified by numberless smaller ridges and hollows running from north-west to south-east . The rest of the government is a flat plateau sloping towards the marshy lowlands of the south . The geological structure is very varied . Granites, syenites and diorites, covered with Laurentian metamorphic slates, occur extensively in the north-west . Near Lake Onega they are overlain with Devonian sandstones and limestones, yielding marble and sandstone for building; to the south of that lake Carboniferous limestones and clays make their appearance . The whole is sheeted with boulder-clay, the bottom moraine of the great ice-sheet of the Glacial period . The entire region bears traces of glaciation, either in the shape of scratchings and elongated grooves on the rocks, or of eskers (dsar, selgas) running parallel to the glacial striations . Numberless lakes occupy the depressions, while a great many more have left evidences of their existence in the extensive marshes . Lake Onega covers 3764 sq. m., and reaches a depth of 400 ft . Lakes Zeg, Vyg, Lacha, Loksha, Tulos and Vodl cover from 140 to 480 sq. m. each, and their crustacean fauna indicates a former connexion with the Arctic Ocean .

The south-eastern

part of Lake Ladoga falls also within the government of Olonets . The rivers drain to the Baltic and White Sea basins . To the former system belong Lakes Ladoga and Onega, which are connected by the Svir and receive numerous streams; of these the Vytegra, which communicates with the Mariinsk canal-system, and the Oyat, an affluent of Lake Ladoga, are important for navigation . Large quantities of timber, fire-wood, stone, metal and flour are annually shipped on waters belonging to this government . The Onega river, which has its source in the south-east of the government and flows into the White Sea, is of minor importance . Sixty-three per cent of the area of Olonets is occupied by forests; those of the crown, maintained for shipbuilding purposes, extend to more than 800,000 acres . The climate is harsh and moist, the average yearly temperature at Petrozavodsk (61° 8' N.) being 33.6° F . (12.0° in January, 57.40 in July); but the thermometer rarely falls below—3o° F . The population, which numbered 321,250 in 1881, reached 367,902 in 1897, and 401,100 (estimate) in 1906 . They are principally Great Russians and Finns . The people belong mostly to the Orthodox Greek Church, or are Nonconformists . Rye and oats are the principal crops, and some flax, barley and turnips are grown, but the total cultivated area does not exceed 21% of the whole government .

The

chief source of wealth is timber, next to which come fishing and hunting . Mushrooms and berries are exported to St Petersburg . There are quarries and iron-mines, saw-mills, tanneries, iron-works, distilleries and flour-mills . More than one-fifth of the entire male population leave their homes every year in search of temporary employment . Olonets is divided into seven districts, of which the chief towns are Petrozavodsk, Kargopol, Lodeinoye Pole, Olonets, Povyenets, Pudozh and Vytegra . It includes the Olonets mining district, a territory belonging to the crown, which covers 432 sq. m. and extends into the SerdobOl district of Finland; the ironworks were begun by Peter the Great in 1701-1714 . Olonets was colonized by Novgorod in the 11th century, and though it suffered much from Swedish invasion its towns soon became wealthy trading centres . Ivan III. annexed it to the principality of Moscow in the second half of the 16th century .