On the Boh, at the point where the river becomes navigable, lies Vosnesensk, an important river port, with some industry and considerable wood and grain trade. On the deep Boh liman, at the mouth of the Inhul, lies Mikolaiv (103,000 pop.), a very important naval and [336]commercial harbor, which has the greatest exportation of grain, after Odessa, and large shipyards, foundries and machine-shops. Krivi Rih (15,000 pop.), on the Inhul, has 33 iron mines, and is the center of Ukrainian iron mining. On the Dnieper, on the border of the Pontian and Dnieper Plains, lies the city of Katerinoslav (218,000 pop.), hardly more than a century old. Katerinoslav owes its great importance to its position on the Dnieper at the beginning of the rapids section, and at the end of the upper steamboat navigation, where an important railroad line crosses the river, connecting the iron mines of Krivi Rih with the coal fields on the Donetz. Hence, Katerinoslav is, above all, an industrial city with large foundries, forges and machine shops. Katerinoslav carries on the greatest lumber trade in the entire Ukraine. Its grain and coal trade is very important too. Below the rapids, in the old Zaporog country, sacred to every Ukrainian, lies the rapidly rising city of Olexandrivsk (51,000 pop.), an important river port and railroad junction, with a metal and milling industry. Nikopol (17,000 pop.), the point of crossing of the old commercial road over the Dnieper into Crimea, is the center for manganese mining, and has some milling industry. Its harbor is exceptional in that it is reached by smaller sea-vessels, which, however, sail up the Dnieper only as far as Berislav (12,000 pop.), where the grain is transferred from river boats to sea-vessels. On the left Dnieper bank, opposite Berislav, lies the important river harbor of Kakhivka. Oleshki has considerable vegetable, fruit and melon-culture, fishing and crab-fishing. Not far from the outlet of the Dnieper into its liman, lies the government capital, Kherson (92,000 pop.), like Odessa, Mikolaiv and Katerinoslav, a young city of the end of the 18th Century. Its harbor was first made accessible to large sea-vessels by the dredging of the ship-canal of [337]Otshakiv in the Dnieper liman (1887), and since then the city has been growing rapidly. Kherson carries on a very important lumber and grain trade, and has large saw-mills, grain-mills, soap and tobacco factories. Two fortresses defend the entrance to the Dnieper liman, Ochakiv (12,000 pop.), with an insignificant harbor for coast vessels, and Kinburn.