vni.] NATURAL CONDITIONS OF SIBERIA. 285 



be without traffic, the land such as it is at present, and 

 the unprosperous condition of the European population 

 undiminished. 



In order to give the reader an idea of the present natural 

 conditions, and the present communication on a Siberian river 

 I shall, before returning to the sketch of the voyage of the 

 Vcgn, give some extracts from notes made during my journey 

 up the Yenesej in 1875, reminding the reader, however, that 

 the natural conditions of the Ob-Irtisch and the Lena differ 

 considerably from those of the Yenisej, the Ob-Irtisch flowing 

 through lower, more fertile, and more thickly peopled regions, 

 the Lena again through a wilder, more beautiful, but less 

 cultivated country. 



When one travels up the river from Port Dickson, the broad 

 sound between Sibiriakoff's Island and the mainland is first 

 passed, but the island is so low that it is not visible from the 

 eastern bank of the river arm which is usually followed in 

 sailing up or down the river. The mainland, on the other hand, 

 is at first high-lying, and in sailing along the coast it is possible 

 to distinguish various spurs of the range of hills, estimated to 

 be from 150 to 200 metres high, in the interior. These are 

 free of snow in summer. A little south of Port Dickson they 

 run to the river bank, where they form a low rock and rocky 

 island projecting into the river, named after some otherwise 

 unknown Siberian Polar trapper, Yefremov Kamen. 



Sibiriakoff's Island has never, so far as we know, been visited 

 by man, not even during the time when numerous simovies were 

 found at the mouth of the Yenesej. For no indication of this 

 island is found in the older maps of Siberia, although these, as 

 appears from the fac-simile reproduced at page 147, give the 

 names of a number of simovies at the mouth of the Yenisej, 

 now abandoned. Nor is it mentioned in the accounts of the 

 voyages of the great northern expeditions. The western strand 

 of the island, the only one I have seen, completely bore the 

 stamp of the tundra described below. Several reindeer were 

 seen pasturing on the low grassy eminences of the island, giving 

 promise of abundant sport to the hunter who first lands 

 there. 



Still at Yefremov Kamen we saw in 1875 three Polar bears 

 who appeared to pasture in all peacefulness among the rocks, 

 and did not allow themselves to be disturbed by the enormous 

 loof-fire of driftwood we lighted on the strand to make our 

 coffee. Here were found for the last time during our journey 

 up the river actual marine animals : Appendicularia, Clio, 

 medusae, large beroids, &c. Large bushy plants were still com- 

 pletely wanting, but the vegetable world already began to 

 assume a stamp differing from the Arctic Ocean flora proper. A 



