44 SIBERIA. 



CHAPTER IV. 

 The Yakutsk Frontier Country. 



Orognipliic ami liydrogfapliic review; divi.sioii iiitu two regiou.s or zones, tlie region of 

 liigli-slonimed trcc^ and forest indu.stries witli a mixture of cattle raising and the polar tundra 

 zone: the climatic conditions of each of these regions; vegetation and fauna; composition and 

 distribution of tlie population: the natives of the Yakutsk border land; the Arctic Ocean, its 



islands, flora and fauna. 



TO the east, south-east and south-west of Siberia proper, which has just been described, 

 stretch enormous tracts of land which have as yet been but little touched by Russian 

 civilization, and which may be termed the border lands of Siberia. 



The most extensive of these is the Yakutsk frontier country. It consists exclusively of 

 tlie Yakutsk region which is under the aihuinistration of the Governor-Generalship of Irkutsk, 

 formerly that of Eastern Siberia. With regard to its geographical position the Yakutsk bor- 

 der land occupies a largo part of the country watered by the gigantic river Lena and 

 also the basins of some of the smaller tributaries of the Northern Ocean, such as the Ole- 

 nek, the Yana, the Indighirka, the Alazea and the Kolyma. Its surface covers the enormous 

 area of 70 thousand square geographical miles; this considerably exceeds that of the govern- 

 ments of Yenisseisk and Irkutsk taken together, or that part of Siberia proper called Eastern 

 Siberia. It is bounded on the south-east and east for more than 3,000 miles by the Stanovoi 

 or Yablouoi mountains, which throughout the whole of their length serve as a barrier between 

 the waters flowing from the north-western side into the Xortheru Ocean, and those flowing 

 from the south-east and east into the Okhotsk and Behring Sea of the Pacific. The Stan- 

 ovoi or Yablouoi chain is not very elevated, the summits of Kogahin, Gonam and the road 

 leading to the prison of Udsk have an altitude of 2,500 to 4,000 feet above the level 

 of the sea, whilst some of the highest peaks have an elevation of 5,000 to 7,000 feet. On 

 the Stanovoi chain and the mountains adjoining it, as for instance the Yerkhnoyarsk chain, 

 not only do the numerous branches of the large straight tributaries of the Lena, like the 

 Olekma and Aldan, take their rise, but also those of the ocean rivers, the Yana, the Indi- 

 ghirka and the Kolyma. The Lena itself rises in the borders of Eastern Siberia in the Baikal 

 mountain range, the summits of which, as for instance the Yetkin peak, are not more than 

 4,200 feet above the level of the sea. The outlying mountains of the Stanovoi chain, stretch- 



