Nizhne

Nizhne - TAGILSK, popularly known as Tagil, a town and ironworks of Russia, in the government of Perm, stands in a longitudinal valley on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains, within a few miles of the place where the Tagil, cutting through the eastern wall of the valley, escapes to the lowlands to join the Tura, a tributary of the Tobol. The southern part of this valley is occupied by the upper Tagil, and its northern portion by the upper Tura, from which the Tagil is separated by a low watershed. Pop. (1897) 30,000, all Great-Russians and chiefly Nonconformists. The town is connected by railway (the first in Siberia) with Perm and Ekaterinburg, the latter distant 88 m. to the S.S.E. It was founded in 1725 by the Russian mine-owner Demidov, and is still the property of his family. Nizhne-Tagilsk is a central foundry for a number of iron-mines and other works scattered in the valley of the Tagil and its tributary the Salda. Gold, platinum and copper are also mined at Nizhne-Tagilsk. The town carries on a brisk corn trade. The inhabitants make wooden boxes and trays, which are sent to the fairs of Irbit and Nizhniy-Novgorod.