428 



SIBKKIA 



to the square mile in parts of South Tomsk HIM) 

 Tobolsk, while the deserts of the far north are 

 almost nninhahited. The total population of 

 Silmria. which wan leas than 1 million at the begin- 

 ning of the 19th century, ha<l in 1897 attained 

 , r i.7'-'7.i1HI, und it is yearly increased by some fill, (100 

 new immigrants coining from Russia; so that in 

 western Siberia a want of fro- huid uvailable for 

 agriculture is already felt by the new-comers. The 

 Russians in Siberia proper already numU'i more 

 than 3,800,000. They occupy the best part* of 

 th territory in the south, as well as the valleys 

 of the chief rivers. The indigenous population, 

 barbarously exterminated by the Turkish and 

 Mongolian conquerors of the country in the 1'Jt h 

 and 13th centuries, and by the l;u--i.ui coiif|iierora 

 in the 17th and I si h centuries, hardly numbers now 

 700,000 ; whole tribes have almost entirely dis- 

 appeared. The natives belong to various stocks : 

 the Ugrian stock is represented by the Voguls, the 

 Ostiaks, and the Samoyedes on the slopes of the 

 Urals. Various small stems of Turkish origin in- 

 habit the slopes of the Altai and Sayan mountains; 

 they number about 80,000; while the Yakuts, be- 

 longing to the same stock, number no less than 

 200,000. The Mongolian race is represented by 

 the Kalmucks (about 20,000 in the Altai), the 

 Burials (250,000) around Lake Baikal, and the 

 Tunguses (about 50,000), who lead a nomad exist- 

 ence in the mountains of East Siberia and the 

 Amur region. Nearly 15,000 Manchurians and 

 Chinese continue to stay on Russian territory of 

 the Amur and Usari ; and more than 3000 Coreans 

 are settled around the Gulf of Peter the Great 

 Finally, in the north-east there are several stems 

 usually described as Hyperboreans and akin to 

 the Eskimos : the Tchuktchis ( 12,000), the Koryaks 

 (5000), and the Kamchadales (3000). On the 

 Lower Amur we find the Ghilyaks (about 5000), 

 and in the Island of Saghalien the Ainos (3000). 

 The condition of the aborigines is altogether pre- 

 carious ; their hunting and grazing grounds are 

 constantly invaded by Russian settlers, and they 

 themselves become an easy prey to the traders, who 

 enslave them by means of loans of food, gun- 

 powder, &c. The numbers of most of them, save 

 the Yakuts and the Burials, are declining, and 

 some stems will soon totally disappear a fact 

 which is much to be regretted, because their chil- 

 dren, when they have received education in Russian 

 schools, generally prove to be useful workers in 

 various branches of science and art. As to the 

 Russians in Siberia, the old stock of early settlers, 

 rlii'-tly of North Russian origin, differ a good deal 

 from the bulk of the Great Russians. Not having 

 known serfdom (only 8000 peasants in West Siberia 

 and 20,000 peasant* who In-longed to the emperor's 

 mines in East Siberia were serfs in 1861 ), they are 

 of a more independent spirit ; but these descend- 

 ants of the Novgorodian traders also are much 

 more individualistic and almost devoid of poetical 

 gift*, though very successful as a rule in exact 

 sciences. The chemist Mendeleyeff. the historian 

 S<-ha|>otr, the zoologist. I'olyakoff, and several other 

 men of mark are of Siberian extraction. On the 

 outskirts of the continent the Russians, especially 

 during the first centuries of the conquest, under- 

 went a good deal of mixture with the aborigines 

 Samoymlca, Ostiaks, Burials, and Yakut*. 



A great variety of religions are met with in 

 Siberia. The Russians belong chiefly to the Greek 

 Orthodox faith, or rather to some of the noncon- 

 formist sect*, the very making of Siberia lieing 

 <liie to the emigration of dissenters persecuted by 

 government in their mother-country, as well as to 

 the runaway serfs, mid at a later* epoch, to the 

 desire of avoiding military service Most Turkish 

 tribe* profess the Mohammedan faith, which IB 



steadily winning new converts. The lluriats pro- 

 fen Buddhism ; and most t'grinn and Finnish 

 stems, as well as the Hyperboreans, are Shaman- 

 isU. Christianity is making but very slow and 

 nominal progress. 



>/<*. The rapid increase of population which 

 has taken place in the last quarter of the 19th cen- 

 tury is chiefly due to free immigration. As to the 

 exiles, of whom no less than a million have been 

 transported to Siberia since 1840, and who are 

 transported now to the number of 20,000 every 

 year, they have contributed but little to the in- 

 crease of the settled |>oj>ulation. After having 

 been kept for a numlier of years in prisons in com- 

 plete idleness, and spent a couple of years on the 

 journey, large parts of which are still made on foot, 

 they are quite unable to become regular agricul- 

 turists. They look upon Russia as their mother- 

 country, and very many of them make an attempt 

 to return to their native villages. They run away, 

 wander on foot through the forests, and, after 

 having been re-arrested and brought back to their 

 settlements, they repeat again and again the 

 attempt on the next opportunity. Others join the 

 ranks of the floating population, and perish in 

 numbers on long pedestrian journeys to and from 

 the gold-mines. 



Agriculture, Industry. Agriculture and cattle- 

 breeding are the chief occupations. The regions of 

 Tomsk, South Tobolsk, Minusinsk, Irkutsk, and 

 Middle Amur produce more corn than is wanted 

 for the population, and export some. It may be 

 taken that the annual production of all sorts of 

 corn (summer wheat, rye, oats, and barley) in 

 an average \ ear amount* to or exceeds 7,000,000 

 quarters in A\'est Siberia, and 4,500,000 quarters in 

 East Siberia, Cattle-breeding is extensively carried 

 on, espeeially in the steppes of the east. It is 

 roughly estimated that there are about 2,000,000 

 horses, 1,500,000 head of horned cattle. :t.(KtO,000 

 sheep, and 100,000 reindeer in West Sib.-iia, and 

 about 850,000 horses, 1,100,000 horned cattle, 

 1,120,000 sheep, and 50,000 reindeer in Fast Silieria. 

 Hunting continues to he profitable, in some parts 

 of the territory, notwithstanding the reckless ex- 

 termination of wild animals and burning of foi 

 which have been going on for three hundred years. 

 Sables, Arctic foxes, and gray foxes become'rare ; 

 so that squirrels, common foxes, bears, deer, and 

 antelopes, as also some ermines and a few beavers 

 in the north-east, are the chief object of the hunter. 

 Even the sables which were so numerous on the 

 Amur when the Russians first occupied it arf 

 rapidly being exterminated. Fishing is exten- 

 sively carried on on Lake Baikal, the Amur, th 

 Obi, and other rivers. Industry is in its childhood. 

 With the exception of the Tinmen region, where 

 some carpets are woven in the peasants' houses, 

 and a few domestic trades arc resorted to in the 

 winter, the Russians in Silieria do not carry on 

 the domestic indn si ries so characteristic of middle 

 Russia. In Transbaikalia the want of the simplest 

 technical knowledge is simply astonishing. There- 

 fore, although Siheiia has all the raw produce that 

 maybe wanted for the development of a prosperous 

 industrial activity, the want of technical skill pre- 

 vents the growth of industries. It must also be 

 said that the prospects of a sudden enrichment in 

 the lottery of gold-mining diverts the attention of 

 the population and the few capitalists from the 

 surer industrial pursuits, and that the lirst steps in 

 that direction are beset with difficulties in a country 

 devoid of railways, domestic industries, and techni- 

 cal schools. Yet the influence of the mining and 

 industrial centres of the Urals is already felt in 

 West Silieria. Tinmen has its establishments in 

 which steamers provided with all modern fittings 

 are built with full success. 



