98 SIBERIA. 



Jiotli till) f4.,'iiera! appcaiunco and tlie soil comlitions of llin I>liinisk steppe chauge a 

 littlo (Ml moving from the west to the east. Upon its western border in the Knr},'ansk dis- 

 trict and the soiitii-wf.'-li'ni part of tiiat of Ishinisk, Ihi^ islands are small, but vi-ry thickly 

 sot, so that they occupy the j,'n^ater part of the expanse, and communicate to the latter a 

 rolling character. The soil upon the islands is very darkly stained and the wild cherry, tli" 

 sign of its excellent quality, is evrywhere to be i\v\ with. I'lirther to the east, in the .south- 

 eastern corner of the Ishimsk district and in that of Tiukalinsk, the cherry vanishes, th'* 

 soil on the islands has on the whole a paler tinge and is much le.ss fertile. The island> 

 themselves, each by itself much longer, are scattered over the steppe .somewhat thinly, so 

 that llir latter here assumes rather a Hat than a rolling character. 



A contour very similar to that of the Ishimsk steppe is possessed by tlie Harabinsk 

 steppe lying to the east of it, embracing in the Tobolsk government the eastern half of the 

 Tiukalinsk district and in that of Tomsk, the south-western half of the Kainsk ilistrict. . Here 

 also the horizontal surface of the steppe is sprinkled on the one hand with lakes ami on the 

 other with oblong elevations, ridges or islands. Here as in the Ishimsk steppe, the dependence 

 between the contour and the soil is so close that, as one of the latest explorers remarks, 

 <; knowing the contour of this or that site, it is easy to determine the soil itself, lying there ». 

 Upon tbe broad and sloping ridges chernoziom is everywhere deposited; upon the nan^ow 

 and more abrupt ridges, a clayey soil. Some broad ridges possess sloping northern and more 

 precipitous southern sides. In such cases chernoziom is to be found on the northern incline 

 and clayey soil on the southern. As for the flat space between the ridges the more low lying 

 plots are composed of saltmarsh, partly white or covered with a saline efflorescence and 

 deprived of all vegatation, partly black, covered with a herbaceous growth but equally unsuit- 

 ed to the raising of grain. Upon the more elevated parts, lying nearest to the foot of the 

 ridges, the soil is p o d s o 1 o n o k of the same type as in the Ishimsk steppe and adapted 

 to the cultivation of cereals. 



In respect to the fertility of its arable lands the Barabinsk steppe is placed in the same 

 conditions as the eastern Ishimsk borderland, and in worse than the western part of the 

 latter. In the Barabinsk steppe, as in the eastern part of the Ishimsk steppe, the wild cherry, 

 characteristic of the best wheat lands of the western part of the Ishimsk steppe, does not 

 occur. Within the Barabinsk steppe itself the general level of fertility is not without variation. 

 Least fertile is the northern borderland of Barabinsk, where the steppe gradually passes over 

 into an expanse of urman and swamp. Most fertile is the southern borderland, embracing a 

 part of the liarnaul and Bisk districts and reaching to the foothills of the Altai. 



From the eastern frontier of the Barabinsk steppe right up to lake Baikal, including the 

 eastern districts of the Tomsk government and the whole cultivated portion of those of Yeni- 

 seisk and Irkutsk, stretches a tract showing great uniformity both in its general character 

 and in its soil conditions.' A certain peculiarity is presented only by the southern border- 

 lands of the Yeniseisk and Irkutsk governments, especially the Minusinsk district, which 

 possess a steppe character, with a predominance of chernoziom soils of good quality, yielding 

 excellent harvests of wheat. The whole remaining space has the appearance of what may be 

 called the central Siberian p o 1 e s i e or forest region. 



