GEOGRAPniCAL REVIEW. 31 



ment of tlie alpine meadows of tlie Altai (primula longiscapa Led.), charming blue and 

 yellow gentians (gentiaua atrata Bge., azurea Bge., tenuis Bge, altaioa Pall, karelini Fries., 

 frigida Haenk., macrophylla Pall.), irises, (iris glancescens Bge., hloudowi Led. and tii>iidia 

 Bge.) and some bulbous plants: tulipa altaica Pali., lilinin tennifnliuni Fisf^h. and L. specta- 

 bile Link, fritillaria verticillata W. et cetera. 



The extraordinary wealth and variety of the Altai flora finds its explanation not oidy 

 in the circumstance that in the Altai, as in every mountainous country, within a comparitiv.dy 

 nan'ow compass, various climates are superimposed one upon another, but also in this 

 that the extremely varied contour of the Altai mountain region presents very distinct ridges, 

 cut off by deep longitudinal valleys and intersected by short transverse valleys, anil at the 

 same time extensive elevated plateaux and low hummocky foot hills. Over the whole of this 

 vast mountainous area situated between the limitless and relatively moist plain of Western 

 Siberia sloping to the Arctic Ocean, and the almost equally unlimited parched steppes of Cen- 

 tral Asia, a struggle is constantly going on between the north and north-west damp ai'i-ial 

 currents and the southern and perfectly dry winds in the lower layers of the atmosplier(\ In 

 consequence of this, polar forms, or an isolated high alpine vegetation, prevail upon the north- 

 ern slopes of the Altai, while its southern slopes are climbed by the flora of the Contral 

 Asian steppes, which chancing as it rises upon moi-e favourable climatic conditions, becomes 

 differentiated into a whole series of original high steppe varieties. To such forms bidong, for 

 example, the peculiar species of astragalus and oxytropis of the Altaic meadows of the 

 alpine zone. 



A like dependence upon climatic conditions is also sho^vn by the higher invertebi-ates, 

 namely, the insects, and especially such of them as for example, the majority of the cideoptera. 

 not possessing any considerable capacity for flight, have not any extended regions cd" distri- 

 bution and are accordingly dependent to a greater extent upon local conditions id' climate. 

 soil and vegetation. But hero, as in the case of the flora, the insect fauna of the WesttM-n 

 Siberian plain differs little from that of European Russia and only the fauna of the Altai 

 mountain region is as richly varied ami original as the flora. The loral forms of coleoptera 

 incapable of flight, are peculiarly eccentric: for example, species of carabns, some of which 

 are exceedingly rare: car. imperialis Fiscli., car. reffalis Boeb., car. Gebleri Fisch., cai'. Leachi 

 Fisch; car. Loschnikowii Fisch, et cetera, iind wingh^ss wood cutters (for e\anipl(>. dorcadion 

 politum Dalm.) et cetera. The vertebrates have a wider area of distribution. Those which are 

 hunted maintain themselves best in the vast uninhabited regions of Eastern Siberiii. and will 

 accordingly be dealt with when that ronntry comes to ho described. 



The question of the distribution and classification of the native anil Russian population 

 of Western Siberia will now be considered. 



The total population of Western Siberia amounts to 2,70(\000 of imth sexes, of whom 

 only eight per cent are natives, the immigrant Russian elenieni forming ninety-two per cent. 

 Among the imtive population the first place in point of numbers is occupied by Finiio-turkish 

 tribes, known under the collective name of Tartars. They are a remnant of the tribes which 

 composed the ancient Kuchum Siberian Kingdiun. Tliore are now calculated to be ninety 

 thousand of these Tartars in WestiMii Sil)i>ria. They are distiihiiti'd in smdi a way that as 



