On the western borderlands of the Ukraine, in this region, lies the city of Yaroslav on the San (25,000 pop.), a railway junction in an important strategic position. Founded by the ancient Ukrainian princes of Kiev, Yaroslav was once famous for its annual fairs. Near it, on the San, lies Radimno with its rope industry. But the most important city on the San is Peremishl (57,000 pop.), at once one of the oldest cities of Galicia and the one-time capital of the Ukrainian dynasty of the Rostislavids. Peremishl owes its importance to its position as a bridge city at a point where important roads from the west and northwest cross the San to the east and south. It lies at the important junction of the Galician main railroad line, with the important Lupkov line coming from Hungary, and is accordingly, as a result of its position, a first-class fortress, which closes the San valley and cuts off access to the adjacent Carpathian passes. The commercial standing of the city is considerable; here, too, a Greek-Catholic bishopric has its seat, and here there exist numerous Ukrainian cultural and economic societies.
In the sub-Carpathian Dniester region, which is traversed lengthwise by the Galician Transversal Railroad, lie a number of important cities. On the Dniester we find Sambir (21,000 pop.) at the crossing of the railroads, with a lumber industry of some size. On the Tismenitza Railroad lies Borislav (15,000 pop.), but recently a little Boike village, now, together with the adjacent towns of Tustanovichi (12,000 pop.) and Skhidnitza, the center of petroleum and ozokerite production. A forest of artesian wells, factory chimneys, petroleum reservoirs, have sprung up amid the famous “Borislav mud,” among miserable dirty houses which shelter so many millionaires and hungry wretches, so much happiness and misery, crime and immorality. The refineries for the petroleum that is [[314]]gained here are located mostly in the adjacent Drohobich (39,000 pop.), the seat of the petroleum speculators. Salt works also are found in this city, still greater ones in the adjacent Stebnik, where enormous deposits of salt have been discovered, but thus far not been exploited. Truskavetz is a well-known watering-place.
On the Striy lies the important railroad junction of Striy (33,000 pop.), with a mill, lumber and match industry, the seat of the Ukrainian dairymen’s association and other Ukrainian organizations; at the mouth of the Striy the ancient town of Zidachiv. On the sub-Carpathian Transversal Railroad toward the east, lie the following: the watering-place Morshin, Bolekhiv with salt-works and match factories Dolina with salt-works and saw-mills, Kalush with saltpeter-mining and salt-works. Stanislaviv (over 60,000 pop.), situated at the junction of the two Bistritza rivers, is an important railway center in which the Lemberg-Czernowitz Railroad meets the Transversal railroad, the South Polish Railroad and the Hungarian branch railroad to Marmarosh. The city has an important industrial and commercial activity, and is the seat of the Greek-Catholic bishopric. Stanislaviv has inherited the former importance of Halich, the one-time capital of the Ukrainian Kingdom of the same name, which, at its highest development, reached the Polissye swamps on the north, the Dnieper on the east, the Black Sea and the Danube delta on the south. At that time (11th and 12th Century), Halich equalled or surpassed in size, wealth and commercial importance, most of the capitals of Western Europe. After a thousand years of Polish dominion it is now a miserable town in a beautiful location, important geographically for its traffic advantages. A side-line here branches off from the main railroad into Podolia. Attempts are being made to enliven Dniester navigation, which begins here [[315]]and in Zuravno at the mouth of the Svicha. Not far from Stanislaviv lie Tovmach, Tismenitza (10,000 pop.) with a leather industry, and Ottinia with a machine industry of some size.
In the Galician Prut region, Kolomia (45,000 pop.) is the most important city, at the junction of sub-Carpathian and Pokutian railroad lines, with an important commerce and pottery industry. Further to the east, on the Prut, lies Zabolotiv with a tobacco factory and Sniatin (12,000 pop.) with an active commerce and agricultural production. Dzuriv and Novoselitza have lignite mines. In the sub-Carpathian country of the Bukowina, the capital city, Czernowitz, developed in one century from a miserable village to a city of 93,000 inhabitants. Czernowitz has some industry and considerable commerce. Important railroads lead from here, via Novoselitza to Russia, and via Itzkany to Roumania. Czernowitz is the seat of the most eastern German University (but several professors lecture in Ukrainian), a Greek-Catholic metropolitan, and numerous Ukrainian organizations. In nearby Sadahora, well-frequented annual fairs take place. The cities carrying on a lively trade, Seret, Storozhinetz (10,000 pop.), Radivtzi (17,000 pop.—the city with the great breeding-stud), and Suchava (12,000 pop.), all lie on the boundary of the Ukrainian and Roumanian-speaking populations. Katshka possesses large salt-works.
The Rostoche, which embraces a part of Northern Galicia and the southern part of the Government of Kholm (eastern borderlands of the Governments of Lublin and Sidletz), is, for the most part, an agricultural country, altho the forest areas, which are still rather large, have retained their once flourishing lumber industry. The villages of this region are large, but consist, as a rule, of scattered hamlets and lone farms. There are not many cities in the Rostoche region, but on its southern border we find one of [[316]]the most important in the Ukraine, the ancient royal city of Lviv (Lemberg, 220,000 pop.).
The importance of the geographical position of Lemberg is in the fact that it lies at the point of the easiest passage from the low country of the Buh to the west, and into the Carpathian country across the Ukrainian group of plateaus, which is narrowest here. Lemberg commands all the more important roads of the Western Ukraine, and, after their union, leads them westward. Lemberg is the greatest railroad center of all the Ukraine; nine railroads as well as eight highroads converge here from all parts of the continent. The thing that has contributed most to the remarkable growth of Lemberg in the last half-century, besides the railroads, is its position as the capital of Galicia, that largest of the Austrian crown-provinces. Founded about the middle of the 13th Century by the Ukrainian princes of Halich, Danilo and Lev, Lemberg, about the middle of the 14th Century, fell under Polish rule. Here industry and commerce flourished in the 15th and 16th Centuries, thanks to the German middle-class of the city; then Lemberg declined irresistibly until it came under Austria’s dominion as a little town, from which time on, it flourished again. At present Lemberg is the trade center of Ukrainian-Galicia and shows some industrial progress (brick-kilns, breweries, alcohol distilleries, railroad shops, etc.). As a result of recent rapid development, the character of the city is almost wholly modern; the number of historical landmarks is not large. Lemberg is the seat of three archbishops, a University with several Ukrainian chairs, a technical and a commercial college, as well as many trade schools and intermediate schools. Lemberg is also one of the chief centers of Ukrainian cultural life, and the seat of many important Ukrainian societies and institutions.
In the Galician Rostoche region there are besides Lemberg, only small towns: Zovkva, Yavoriv (10,000 pop.), [[317]]with lumber industry, Rava (11,000 pop.). At the railroad junction, Nemiriv with mineral springs, Potilich with a considerable pottery industry. Mosti veliki, the large village of Kaminka voloska (10,000 pop.), Belz, formerly a Ukrainian royal residence. On the Buh lie the following: the old town of Busk, Kaminka strumilova, Sokal, at the point where more active river navigation begins.
In the Kholm Rostoche, the most important city is Kholm (20,000 pop.), founded, like Lemberg, by Prince Danilo, now a Jewish city carrying on a lively trade in the agricultural products of this fertile region, and the capital of the Government of the same name. Tarnohorod and Tomashiv are notorious for their smuggling, Bilhoray is known for its sieve industry, Hrubeshiv and Zamostye (12,000 pop.) for their trade in foodstuffs.
A country of similar anthropogeographical character is the adjacent plain of Pidlassye. This country embraces the northern part of the Government of Kholm and the southern part of the Government of Grodno. Fertile stretches of land, with large villages, here alternate with large wooded areas (the virgin forest of Biloveza) and swamp areas, in which small villages and hamlets predominate. The most important city of the Pidlassye is the fortress of Berestia (57,000 pop.) on the Mukhavetz, the eastern base of the fortress quadrangle of the Vistula region and an important railroad center, where five lines meet with the Dnieper-Buh Canal. Besides its very considerable commerce, Berestye has great historical reminiscences of the union of the orthodox church with Rome, accomplished here in 1596. On the left bank of the Buh lie the commercial cities of Vlodava and Bila (13,000 pop.), on the Mukhavetz lies Kobrin (10,000 pop.), and in the neighborhood of the Bilovez Forest, the ancient Kamenetz-Litovsky and Bilsk.
The neighboring Ukrainian country in the east is the [[318]]Ukrainian Polissye. It embraces the southern part of the Government of Minsk, on the right shore of the Zna and the Pripet, and the northern lowland region of the Governments of Volhynia and Kiev. As a result of the decided preponderance of forest and swamp, agriculture must retire to the background, and confine itself only to the small number of higher and more fertile places. There are not such great obstacles to cattle-raising, but forestry and lumber-floating play the most important part. The most important city of the Polissye is Pinsk (37,000 pop.), situated on the navigable Pina, where the Dnieper-Buh Canal and the Dnieper-Niemen Canal connect with the Pripet system. Here begins the regular steamship navigation of the Pripet, here there are large saw-mills, match factories, shipyards, beer and mead breweries and tobacco factories, and here active commerce and lumber-floating flourish. Another important river port is Davidhorodok on the mouth of the Horin, the people of which carry on ship-building and river-navigation and engage in sausage-making and cheese-making. Farther down the river is the antique Turiv, a former royal city, now a miserable little town with a population of farmers and timber-floaters. The equally antique town of Mosir (12,000 pop.) has retained a greater significance, with a good river harbor, ship-building industry and match-making. The last important port on the Pripet is Chornobil.