SIBERIA 



Although Siberia is very rich in all kinds of 

 ores, the same causes prevent the development of 

 rational mining, which still remains chiefly limited 

 to gold-washing, very primitive in most cases, and 

 only here and there supplied with modern machinery. 

 The production of gold is considerable. In the 

 period 1860-90 no less than from 404 to 584 cwt. of 

 gold annually were obtained in East Siberia, and 48 

 cwt. in West Siberia, exclusive of Perm. In 1888 

 the figures of extraction of gold were : Tomsk, 43 

 cwt. ; Yeniseisk and Irkutsk, 98 ; Transbaikalia, 

 56 ; Yakutsk, 149 ; Amur, 125. Silver is extracted 

 in the Altai to the amount of from 130 t-> 

 300 cwt. every year ; lead, 3250 cwt. in the Altai, 

 and 232 cwt 'in Nertchinsk ; copper, 5800 to 7740 

 cwt. in Altai ; iron, 97,000 to 130,000 cwt., to which 

 the considerable production of the ironworks of the 

 eastern slope of the Urals ought to be added. 



Education still stands at a very low level, the 

 total numbers of pupils in schools throughout 

 Siberia hardly exceeding 60,000 boys and girls. 

 A university has been opened at Tomsk (1888), 

 after much opposition on behalf of the government, 

 but it has only two faculties, medical and juridical. 

 In the chief towns of each province tnere are 

 gymnasia in which some education on classical 

 lines is given, but primary and technical educa- 

 tion is in great neglect. The technical society 

 of Irkutsk has, however, made some progress 

 in the latter direction. The geographical societies 

 at Omsk and at Irkutsk are Known for their 

 scientific publications. Natural science and an- 

 thropological museums have been opened of late 

 by some exiles, and those of Irkutsk, Minusinsk, 

 and Yeniseisk contain valuable collections. 



History. The earliest history of Siberia is still 

 imperfectly known, and the numberless tumuli 

 scattered over ita surface only begin to be scien- 

 tifically explored. The earliest inhabitants seem 

 to have belonged to a stock different from the 

 Ural-Altaians, and are described by Radloff as 

 Yeniseians. They were followed by the Ugro- 

 Samoyedes, whose bronze ornaments buried in the 

 tumuli testify to a high pitch of artistic skill. 

 They were subdued in the llth century by Turkish 

 invaders, who themselves were conquered, two 

 centuries later, by the Mongols. The latter swept 

 away the previous civilisation. The Russians, 

 who vaguely knew Siberia since the llth century 

 through the Novgorodian merchants, began the 

 conquest of the territory in 1580, when a band of 

 Cossack robbers under Yermak subdued the Tartars 

 on the Tobol River. New and new bands of Cossacks, 

 traders, and hunters, supported by the Moscow 

 government and followed by dissenters flying from 

 religions persecution and peasants escaping from 

 serfdom, poured into Siliena during the next two 

 centuries. The Cossacks took possession of the 

 country, and reached the coasts of the Sea of 

 Okhotsk within the first eighty years after Yer- 

 mak's expedition. In 1643-50 they also took 

 possession of the Amur, but were compelled by 

 the Chinese to abandon their settlements and forts 

 (1689). The estuary of the Amur was discovered 

 in 1849, and a military post established at the 

 mouth of the river in 1851. The left bank of the 

 Amur and the right bank of the Usuri were 

 annexed in 1853-57 ; a chain of villages was built 

 along both rivers, and the ' accomplished fact ' was 

 recognised by China in 1857 and 1860. The Behring 

 Strait was discovered in 1648 by the Cossack Dej- 

 ni'ir. who sailed that year around the north-eastern 

 extremity of Asia ; but the fact remained unknown, 

 and the scientific discovery of the passage l>etween 

 Asia and America belongs to Behring. The first 

 circu m navigation of Asia was, however, not accom- 

 plished till 1878-79, when Nordenskiftld, on board 

 the Vega, sailed through the Arctic Ocean, wintered 



SIBYL 



429 



on the Siberian coast, entered next spring the 

 Behring Strait, and returned to Sweden via the 

 Japanese and Chinese Seas, the Indian Ocean, and 

 the Suez Canal. 



The Qiographit Universelle of Elisee Reclus, vol. vi. 

 (English trans, by Professor Keane), is the best source 

 of general information in English. See also Eavenstein's 

 Ruiaiant on the Amur (1861); Seebohm's Siberia in 

 Aia(lSS2); Lansdell's Through Siberia (1882); Ken- 

 nan's Tent Life in Siberia (New York, 1870), and 

 Siberia and the Exile System (1891); Eadloffs Aus 

 Sibirien (1884), and other works ; H. de AVindt, Siberia 

 as It is (1891) ; J. Y. Simpson, Side-Lights on Siberia, 

 ( 1898 ). Of numberless Russian works, see ' Picturesque 

 Russia,' by various writers, and Yadrintseff on ' Siberia 

 as a Colony ' ( German trans. 1886 ). 



Sibii a pass, town, and district, in British Belu- 

 chistan, on the Afghan frontier. The town, which 

 is 72 miles SE. of Quetta and has a station on the 

 Sind and Pishin Valley Railway, is the residence 

 of a British political agent. The inhabitants of 

 the district, mostly Pathans and Beluchis, number 

 about 14,000. 



Sibyl, the name given in antiquity to certain 

 inspired prophetesses, whether Apollos mistresses 

 or daughters, or merely his priestesses. The name 

 is explained by Lactautius on authority of Varro 

 as made up of the Doric sios = theos and byle = 

 bottle; Maas tries to connect it with the Eastern 

 Saba or Salxe ; Bang makes bold to connect it with 

 the Volva and Voluspa of the Old Norse Sagas. 

 Their number is differently given ; some writers 

 .Klian and Pausanias, for example mention only 

 four, the Erythra-an, the Samian, the Egyptian, and 

 the Sardian ; Aristophanes and Plato use the word 

 in the singular nuniber only ; but in general ten 

 are reckoned, as by Varro the Babylonian, 

 the Libyan, the Delphian, the Cimmerian, the 

 Erythraean, the Samian, the Cuiiiiran, the Trojan 

 or Hellespontine, the Phrygian, and the Tiburtine. 

 Of these by far the most celebrated is the 

 Cnmtean, identified by Aristotle with the Ery- 

 thraean, and personally known by the names of 

 Herophile, Demo, Phemonoe, Deiphobe, Demo- 

 phile, and Amaltha-a. She figures prominently 

 in the 6th book of Virgil's jEneid, as the con- 

 ductor of the poet into the realm of the shades. 

 Livy records the legend that she came from the 

 east, ap]>eared before King Tarquin, and offered 

 him nine books for sale. The price demanded 

 appeared so exorbitant that the king refused to 

 purchase them. She then went away, destroyed 

 three, and returning, asked as much for the re- 

 maining six as for the nine. This was again 

 refused, whereupon she destroyed other three, and 

 once more offered to sell him the remainder, but 

 still at the same price asked at first. Tarquin was 

 struck by her pertinacity, and bought the books, 

 which were found to contain oracular advices 

 regarding the religion and policy of the Romans. 

 They were preserved in a subterranean chamber of 

 the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline, and were 

 originally entrusted to two officials ( duumviri sac- 

 rortim), appointed by the senate, who alone had 

 the right to inspect them. The number of keepers 

 was afterwards increased to ten (decemviri), and 

 finally by Sulla to fifteen (quindecemviri). In the 

 year 83 B.C., the temple of Jupiter having been 

 consumed by fire, the original Sibylline books or 

 leaves were destroyed, whereupon a special em- 

 bassy was despatched by the senate to all the 

 cities of Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor, to collect 

 such as were current in these regions. The new 

 collection, of about a thousand lines, was deposited 

 in the rebuilt temple of Jupiter, but was trans- 

 ferred in 12 B.C. by Augustus as pontifex to the 

 temple of Apollo on the Palatine, where it remained 

 till it was publicly burned by Stilicho, between 



