ueo^tKaphical review. 27 



Tlie more ooiiiiiieiUal cliaracier ul' ilie culiivatt'd agricultural zone of Western Siberia, 

 as ruiuparcil with the coiresponiliiig latitudes of European Russia, is also observable in tlie 

 amount (if rain and snow. In the ro/^ion under consideration tlie animal rain and snowfall 

 is 38U niillinietres, while in the corresponding parts uf European Kussia it is as much as 500. 

 A still greater difference is seen in the winter fall, which in the Siberian zone is only 50 

 millimetres while in tlu; corresponding poriions of Eiiropfan Russia it is over 80. In summer 

 the difference is not so great, namely, the fall in the Western Siberian zone is 175 milli- 

 metres and in the corresponding parts of European Russia, 185. Hence in the agricultural 

 zone of Siberia the winters are in general far poorer in snow than in European Russia, so 

 that in the southern limits of the agricultural zone the cattle scratch away the snow with 

 their hoofs and lind fodder under their feet in winter, only the winds (bouran) which rise at a 

 temperature of not under — 10*^ Celsius, and meeting with no impediment in the vast plain, sweep 

 away the snow iniu huge drifts and snow ridges. 



The Altai lowlands differ but little from the cultivated agricuhural zone in respect to 

 the rain and snow fall, oidy the ([uantity is far greater on the very slopes of the north and north- 

 west Altai, and especially in the valleys. Thus at the station of the Altai clergy Ulal, the 

 yearly fall is COO millimetres, half of which fall is during the three summer months. This explains 

 the luxurious vegetation of the Altai. The dews, for instance, in the L'lbinsk and Oubinsk 

 valley are so powerful that when riding in clear sunny weather along the naiTow pathway 

 the rider becomes quite wet, as his horse breaks through the tali grass, hint on the other hand, 

 on the southern Altai, the slopes of the wide valleys facing the south are so dry that they are 

 quite void of forest vegetation and only exhibit the high steppe plants of Central Asia, The so- 

 called forest and forestry zone of Western Siberia presents quite other climatic conditions, industries 

 and sporadii; agriculture. Here the average annual temperature is as low as — 2°, while in the 

 corresponding zone of European Russia it exceeds + 1°; the winter temperature is — 20°, and 

 that of the coldest month, — 22°, while in the' corresponding parts of European Russia, the 

 mean winter temperature is — 14'\ and that of the coldest month — 16°. Even the average summer 

 temperature, -f- 14°, is lower than that of the corresponding localities of European Russia, + 16°: 

 and only the temperature of the hottest month (IB^^), surpasses that in European Russia (17°J. 

 Thus, the difference, too, between the mean temperatures of winter and summer, (34°), and 

 in particular, between the coldest and hottest months, (40'-'), is more considerable than the 

 difference for the corresponding parts of European Russia, the lirst being there 30° and the second 

 33° Celsius. As far, however, as concerns the temperature of the vegetative period, especially 

 important for agriculture, it falls in the zuue under consideration to 12° and lower, and is 

 even mere unfavourable than in the corresponding parts of European Russia, where it for the 

 most part certainly, stands higher than 12°, and here and there even, than 13°, as in St. Pe- 

 tersburg, Bielozersk, Vologda, Ustiug, Slobodskaia ami Cherdyn. Everywhere where the tem- 

 perature of the vegetative period does not exceed on an average 12" Celsius, agriculture 

 reaches, so to say, its limit, and shows itself only in a sporadic form, scanty cultivated oases 

 being lost in vast areas, covered with forest and morass and nnsuited to tillage. As far, how- 

 ever, as concerns rainfall, its amount is very much more ceiisiderable in the forest zone of 

 Western Siberia lliau in ilie uLiriculluial zone, fermiiig 470 niilliiuetres a year, which differs 



