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When these woods are very thick, particularly of Pinus 

 sibirica, (I have not observed such to the north of Talowkaja- 

 Sopka, at Riddersk,) they will scarcely allow a plant to grow: 

 when they are not so close, and the ground is moist, they 

 then shelter an uncommonly luxuriant vegetation : Aconita, 

 Cimicifuga foetida, Senecio sarracenicus, Cacalia hastata, 

 Pole'umnmm cceruleum, Orobus luteus, Pceonia hybrida, Arabis 

 pendula, and several others, frequently attain a considerable 

 height, 8 or 10 feet, and even more; but where the woods 

 are very thin, and the ground is dry, there the covering of 

 plants is extremely scanty. As to the line of snow, I can 

 scarcely, from the observation of a single year, say any 

 thing with certainty. On the north side of the mountain, at 

 Riddersk, I have seen snow in the hollows at the height of 

 5,500 feet during the whole summer. I cannot assert, 

 from my own knowledge, that this is annually the case;, 

 though, in answer to my inquiries, I have been informed 

 that it is so; the quantity of undissolved snow, however, 

 varying in different years. On the Plateau of the Korgon, 

 I observed, on the side whicli inclines to the northward, at 

 6,700 feet, large masses of snow, in which might be clearly 

 distinguished the layei'S of several years : such a circumstance 

 never came under my notice on the southern declivities of 

 any mountain. For, whether the summit of the Alp of 

 Baschalatki, which, when I saw it on the 26th of July, was 

 at some distance from my camp, is always covered with snow 

 during summer, I do not know. The countrymen declare 

 that such is the fact; but it is extremely difficult to obtain 

 correct information on similar points from them. To what 

 altitude the culture of corn might be successfully prosecuted, 

 has not been ascertained by actual trials ; yet it deserves to 

 be noticed, on this subject, that I have seen, between the 

 villages Belaja and Tokalka, situated to the south of Cholsun, 

 corn growing at about 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, 

 which is also the limit of resident inhabitants, (in the village 

 of Fykalka.) Some Kalmucks, perhaps, who rove in the 

 lofty Tschuja-steppe, may pass the winter at a still greater 

 height; still their Jiirten c?i,m\o\. be termed settled habitations: 



