VIII.] IMPORTANCE OF THE SEA-ROUTE TO SIBERIA. 281 



climate, fertility, and the possibility of supporting a dense 

 population, with America north of 40° N.L. Like America, 

 Siberia is occupied in the north by woodless plains. South of 

 this region, where only the hunter, the fisher, and the reindeer 

 nomad can find a scanty livelihood, there lies a widely extended 

 forest territory, difficult of cultivation, and in its natural condi- 

 tions, perhaps, somewhat I'esembling Sweden and Finland north 

 of 60° or 61° N.L. South of this wooded belt, again, we have, 

 both in Siberia and America, immeasurable stretches of an 



YAKUTSK IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY. 



(After Witsen.) 



exceedingly fertile soil, of whose power to repay the toil of the 

 cultiyator the grain exports during recent years from the fron- 

 tier lauds between the United States and Canada have afforded 

 so striking evidence. There is, however, this dissimilarity 

 between Siberia and America, that while the products of the 

 soil in America may be carried easily and cheaply to the 

 harbours of the Atlantic and the Pacific, the best part of 

 Siberia, that which lies round the upper j)art of the courses of 

 the Irtisch-Ob and the Yenisej, is shut out from the great 

 oceans of the worhJ by immense ■ tracts lying in front of it, and 



