THE YAKUTSK FRONTIER COUNTRY. 49 



form of life the Yakuts however adapted themselves to the hard conditions of life of the 

 northern forest zone and, exchanging the grassy steppes of Central Asia for the forests and 

 tundras, they hecame a race of hunters and cattle breeders. Cattle rearing is however their 

 chief occupation, after which come hunting and iishing and lastly agriculture, which is but 

 little developed. The Russians, being weak in numbers, have not had an influence upon the 

 Yakuts, except in converting the greater part of them to Christianity, but even this conversion 

 is more apparent than real as the Yakuts are still to a very great extent addicted to shaman- 

 ism, and their former faitli. The Tungues lead almost the same form of life as the Yakuts 

 and number over 10 thousand of both sexes. The other races inhabiting the Yakutsk frontier 

 country, counting about 3,000 men, consist of polar tribes like the Lamuts, Ukagirs, Tchuktchis, 

 Tchuvantsis and Koryaks. These tribes principally occupy the north-eastern polar tundra por- 

 tion of the country. 



The population is very unevenly distributed between the two zones of the Yakutsk 

 frontier country: whilst the region of high forest trees, forest industries and sporadic agricul- 

 ture has 230 thousand inhabitants of both sexes, or about 6 men per square geographical 

 mile; the population of the polar tundra region does not exceed 20 thousand, or about 6 men 

 for every 10 square geographical miles, and is entirely composed of other tribes, as the Rus- 

 sian population principally dwells in the forest zone and the towns. The people of the 

 towns do not however exceed 8,000 of both sexes, or rather more than 3 per cent of 

 the total population of tliis region, and indeed all the towns with the exception of Yakutsk, 

 which has 6,000 inhabitants, are nothing more than small Russian settlements serving 

 as points of support for the Russian rule in the country. In these settlements in the zone of 

 high forest trees the Russians occupy themselves to some extent with agriculture and 

 partly with cattle breeding, but their occupations in the polar tundra zone do not dllTor 

 from' those of the natives. It is a remarkable fact that, whilst the Russian population of Si- 

 beria proper, living under conditions of life approaching those of its native land, has not only 

 gradually increased in numbers, far exceeding the native tribes, but has succeeded to a great 

 extent in assimilating them and even in the Amour-littoral and Kirghiz steppe regions has 

 preserved intact all the national qualities and appearance, here in the Yakutsk frontier country 

 under the heavy yoke of nature the Russian settlers seem to have deviated from their na- 

 tionality. Placed under the most unfavourable conditions fur civilizatidu, they have in some 

 places assimilated themselves with the native tribes and, adopting their mode of life, have 

 descended to their level. This is particularly the case with the population of Yerkhoyansk, Us- 

 tiansk, Zashiversk, upper, middle and lower Kolymsk, and naturally, mixed marriages with the 

 natives have greatly contributed to this state of things. 



The distribution of domestic animals is closely connected with that of the inhabitants 

 over the surface of the country, and with their mode of life and their relation to the ground 

 upon which they dwell. In the Yakutsk frontier country there are more than 50 horses per 

 every 100 inhabitants, or 130 thousand horses in all, or about the same quantity as in West- 

 ern Siberia, but the quantity oC large-horned cattle, 260 thousand beasts in all, exceeds 100 

 head per 100 inhabitants or more than double the quantity in AVestern Siberia, and one and 

 a half times more ihaii in Eastern Siberia: this amounts to 5 head of horned cattle per every 



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