SIHKHIA 



western border by the Great Altai and Sa.van 



mountain!*, which separate Siberia from North-west 

 Mongolia, the Bargii/in ami tlu> Soiiili Mtiya ridges, 

 and a series of yet unexplored and unnamed ridges 

 stretching farther north in the twine direction ; 

 while along its south-eastern border it has the 

 Stanovoi Mountains, \vliich rise as a high wall on 

 the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, and are continued 

 farther south by the Great Khingan. The border- 

 ridges of the lofty plateau are the highest in Siberia, 

 nml their |>eaks attain heights of from 7000 to nearly 

 11,000 feet, but very few of them penetrate into 

 the region of perpetual snow. Mountains remain- 

 ing snow-clad all the year round and giving origin to 

 glaciers are met with only in the Altai (q.v.), at the 

 Munku Sardyk which rises to a height of 10,700 feet 

 amongst the Sayan Mountains to the south-west of 

 Lake Baikal, and in the highlands of the far north 

 east. In the remainder of Siberia, owing to the 

 dryness of climate, and also perhaps to a warm 

 current flowing in the upper strata of the atmo- 

 sphere, the perpetual snow-line stands at a great 

 height not attain.'. I by peaks 7000 to 9000 feet high. 

 A broad belt of alpine tracts fringes the plateau 

 along its north-western border, assuming a more 

 and more gloomy aspect in proportion as they 

 advance farther north. The whole of this belt is 

 thickly clothed with forests, the summits only of 

 the higher peaks (4500 to 7000 feet) rising beyond 

 the limits of tree- vegetation. The auriferous re- 

 gions of the Altai, Upper Yeniseisk, Barguzin, and 

 Olekma are situated in this alpine belt. A belt, 

 nearly 500 miles wide, of high plains 1700 to 

 2500 feet above the sea-level spreads all along the 

 liase of the alpine l>elt, their outer limit lieing, 

 roughly shaking, a line running from Tomsk to- 

 wards the north-east. They are very fertile in the 

 south, but of course become less and less suitable 

 for agriculture as they advance into higher lati- 

 tudes. The whole of \Vest Siberia, between these 

 high plains and the shores of the Arctic Ocean, is 

 an immense lowland which has barely a few 

 hundred feet of altitude and most of which must 

 have emerged from the sea at a quite recent post- 

 glacial epoch. The southern part of these low- 

 lands the prairies of Islam, Upper Tobol, and 

 Baraba is extremely fertile. The soil is a thick 

 layer of black earth, which also penetrates into the 

 lower valleys of the Altai, and the traveller finds 

 t Ill-re to liis astonishment a territory, nearly as 

 large as Great Britain, entirely covered with a 

 luxurious grass-vegetation, with" masses of decidu- 

 ous forest, which is even now the granary of 

 Siheria, and has grain to spare for export to the 

 mines of the Urals. Nearly one third of the 

 population of Silirria is gathered on those prairies, 

 attaining a density of 20 and 4fr inhabitants to the 

 square mile; and the population is more thoroughly 

 Kn inn than in many parts of European Russia 

 it-elf, the indigenous population making but two 

 percent, of the whole. 



Farther north, and especially in the -pace 

 between the Obi and the Irtysh, the country 

 assumes a quite different character; there begin the 

 unmuw, or immense mai'shes which cover nearly 

 100,000 sq. in., entirely dollied with thickets and 

 I, and .|iiitc impracticable in the 

 Hummer. Kven tlie l.e;u does not venture to cross 

 the marshes when they are not frozen. Agricul- 

 tural settlement* may IM- found in this region on 



tin- banks only of the rivers, while so 30,000 



<)-liaks, Voguls. and Samoyedes find scanty means 

 of existence in limiting and fishing. Farther north 

 still Infill the lutulrtu, which extend along the 

 Arctic oealmanl as far a Kamchatka, and cover an 

 aggregate area of some 450,000 sq. m. more than 

 i ice the area of France. The climate of the tundras 

 is really terrible ; the average temperatures of De- 



cember and January are 15 and 35 degrees below 

 the zero of the Fahrenheit scale ; the soil is frozen to 

 a great depth, and only thaws on its surface during 

 the short summer. The trees disappear, only a few 

 species venturing to struggle against the cold by 

 spreading as low bushes or by rising but a couple 

 of inches above the ground. The want of drainage 

 adds to the difficulties which vegetation has to 

 cope with, and only a few (lowering plants enliven 

 occasional small patches of lietter protected and 

 dryer noil. Nevertheless some ,".o,(KK) human beings 

 wander over these inhospitable tracts, with rein- 

 deers and dogs for dragging the sledges across 

 the wilderness. Of the plateau which fills vast 

 tracts in East Sil>eria the upper terrace, 3000 to 4000 

 feet high, is quite unsuitable for agriculture, in 

 consequence of it- altitude, cold climate, and want 

 of drainage ; in fact, the whole of the Vitim plateau 

 and its continuation towards Kamchatka is quite 

 uninhabited. But its lower terrace, which is '2500 

 to 3000 feet above the sea and is separated from 

 the upper bv the Yablonovoi ridge, offers, especially 

 in Transbaikalia, great facilities for agriculture ana 

 cattle-breeding, and is peopled by both Buriats and 

 Russians ; while the small. T chains of mountains 

 which intersect it are the sent of rich goldfields, and 

 owing to their richness in copper, iron, and silver 

 will certainly become some day an important centre 

 for mining industry. The Great Khingan, which 

 is continued farther north by the Stanovoi Khrebet 

 and is pierced by the Amur about Kumara, is the 

 south-eastern Viorder-ridge of the great plateau, 

 and it also is fringed on its outer side bv an alpine 

 belt of several chains of mountains running parallel 

 to the Ixmler of the plateau. Owing to this char- 

 acter, the Stanovoi and the Great Khingan are a 

 most important geographical boundary ; properly 

 speaking they separate Siberia from a region whicli 

 is Manchtirian in its physical features. As soon 

 ns the traveller has crossed this ridge ( which hardly 

 rises as a range of hills above the level of the 

 plateau) and has descended a couple of thousand 

 feet down a very steep slope leading to the basin 

 of the Amur, he sees a complete change of scenery. 

 The oak, the walnut-tree which he lias not seen 

 since he left the Urals, the vine, and a variety of 

 bushes and trees Ix-longing to the Manchiirian and 

 the Japanese floras suddenly make their appear- 

 ance. When he has emerged from the alpine belt 

 lie finds again the same prairies which he has 

 crossed on the Siberian slo)>e of the plateau, and 

 the climate of these pi.-uiies remains as continental 

 and the winters almost as cold as in Siberia proper ; 

 but the general character of the llora and fauna is 

 totally changed. In fact it is European no more ; 

 the species aider from their European congeners, 

 new genera appear, and even the European species 

 offer notable dillerences from the types familiar in 

 Europe. 



Another l>elt of high plains, 1500 to 2000 feet 

 high, follows. These prairies, watered by the 

 Zeya and its tributaries, and covered with a very 

 fertile soil and excellent oak forests, are the 

 richest part of the Amur territory, and are being 

 rapidly occupied by Immigrants, chiefly sectaries, 

 from Kn-sia. who already nnmlicr about 60,000, 

 and supply the gold-mines on the slope of the 

 Stanovoi with grain and cattle. The picturesque 

 Little Khingan or Itnreya .Mountains separate 

 the prairies of the Middle Amur from the low- 

 lands of its lower course. The whole of the latter 

 is only now emerging from the Lacustrine period; 

 immense lakes enclosed within quite flat shores 

 intermingle with swamps ; and wnen the autumn 

 rains, due to the monsoons of the China Sea, 

 swell the waters of the Amur and the Sungari, 

 making of the former a stream several miles wide 

 and covering all its low islands, the whole region 



