EASTERN ORIGINAL SIBERIA 87 



The very climatic conditions of the cultivated or agricultural zone of Eastern Siberia 

 are less advantageous than in the corresponding region of Western Siberia. The mean annual 

 temperature here and there approaches zero, hut in the eastern zone it is a negative quantity 

 (— 2-3), and therefore 0-5" colder tlian in the western. The average winter temperatures are 

 — 18° Celsius, and that of the coldest month — 20°, or 1° and 2-5° below the corresponding 

 temperatures of Western Siberia. The average summer temperature is IG-S*^, and that of the 

 hottest mouth 19°, which also fall short of the corresponding temperatures of Western Siberia 

 by 1° and 0-5°; only the differences between the temperatures of summer and winter, 35°, and 

 between those of the hottest and coldest months, 39°, remain approximately identical. But on 

 the other hand, the most important factor in the capacity of the country for agriculture, the 

 mean temperature of the five-month vegetative period, amounting in the zone under conside- 

 ration to only 14°, is in this part of Eastern Siberia less advantageous than in the correspond- 

 ing zone of Western Siberia. 



And as regards the quantity of rain and snow falling during the whole year, the 

 cultivated or agricultural zone of Eastern Siberia is placed in less advantageous circum- 

 stances than the same zone of Western Siberia, namely, the total precipitation is 

 360 millimetres instead of 380; the summer rainfall is 150 instead of 175, and only tln' 

 winter shows a certain preponderancy, 56, or in other words is more snowy. The more 

 elevated foothills of the cultivated or agricultural zone are placed in incomparably less 

 advantageous climatic conditions, situated as, for example, Kultuk, at the southern extremity 

 of Baikal at an absolute height of 1,600 feet, at the very foot of the Sayan, or as the mine 

 of Preobrazhensk on the Biriussa at an elevation of 3,800 feet in a mountainous valley. Here 

 the mean annual temperature is on an average less than — 8°, the winter almost the same, 

 but the summer colder, the mean temperature being 12"5°, that of the hottest month 14°. 

 in consequence of which the average temperature of the five-month vegetative period is so 

 low, 10'2°, that it is an obstacle to agriculture. 



The second zone, like the corresponding one in Western Siberia, 'may be called 

 the zone of tall trees, forest industries and spdradic agriculture. It includes the Kerensk 

 district of the government of Yenissei and part of the Yenissei district as far as 66°, or 

 the limit of the high-stemmed forests. The area occupied by this zone in Eastern is 

 still more extensive than in Western Siberia, namely, about 27,000 square geographical 

 miles, and consists of a continuous mass of forest and morass, with only here and 

 there, and_ that mainly in its southern part in the neighbourhood of the rivers, islets of 

 small extent and luirrow strips of land in a slight degree fit for the establishment of a 

 settled population. The climatic conditions of this zone are also less favourable than in the 

 corresponding zone of Western Siberia. The average temperature here is lower, — 3 instead 

 of — 2° Celsius, the winters are more severe, having a mean temperature of —21° instead 

 of— 20°, the coldest month being— -25° iusteail of — 23°. Only the summer is somewhat 

 warmer, 15° instead of 14°, the difference between sunmier and winter being therefore 36° 

 instead of 33", and that between the hottest and coldest mouths, 43° instead of 40°. From all 

 this it appears that the climate presents a still more continental character than in the 

 coiTesponding tract of Western Siberia. As for the mean temperature of the five-month 



