FOKEST WEALTH. 1 1 7 



The prevailing arboreal forms in this zone are the conifers, the pine, larch, pi'fch pine, 

 lir and so-called cedar. A complete enumeration of all the species of trees occurring in the 

 Siberian flora with their systematic names has been made already in Chapter II, on the Geo- 

 graphy of Siberia. In forestry it is not trees that grow solitarily but those that grow in gi-eat 

 masses that are of importance. The deciduous trees possess in this zone an insignificant import- 

 ance; the swamps show an occasional admixture of aspen and willow, and birch occurs on 

 the skirts of the taiga. In Western Siberia, chiefly in the urmans of Tarsk, Tobolsk and Tu- 

 rinsk, a lime-tree is met with in the form of underwood, which supplies bark and bast which 

 serve as a source of income to the local population. 



The northern forest zone occupies all those regions of Siberia where agriculture is 

 impossible from the deficient quantity of heat during the five months vegetative period. The 

 fixed population in this zone is insignificant and grain raising is met with sporadically, here 

 and there, in small patches on its southern border. The forest reaches of this vast zone have 

 up to the present time been abandoned exclusively to the forces of nature and cannot present 

 a pleasant spectacle to civilized man, but preserve within themselves an inexhaustible 

 supply of splendid building material. There are many localities where for tens and hundreds 

 of versts in every direction stand clean plantations of pine, which with their interlaced sum- 

 mits hide the sky. The absolutely naked trunks rising perfectly straight to an enormous height 

 are so monotonous, that a man who once chances into such a part of the Siberian taiga, or 

 even a wild beast, cannot find his way out again. Experienced native trappers are afraid to 

 penetrate into these, in their opinion, enchanted spots, and they record every step they take by 

 scoring the trees. Access to such places is difficult, and the timber contained in them is so far 

 without value, but with the growth of the population, the improvement of the roads and the 

 destruction of the forests in the inhabited parts, means will be found to make use of the now 

 remote forest resources. They form indeed the wealth of the future and are merely awaiting 

 their turn. The scourge of the forests of this zone at the present time is only the forest fires, 

 not unfrequently devastating hundreds of versts. The burned timber is however rapidly replaced 

 by young underwood growing up under the influence of natural selection. It must be 

 observed however that the southern limit of the zone of high-trunked trees is gradually retreat- 

 ing to the north, yielding place to the raising of grain. 



Birch forest zone. 



The zone of birch forest covers the whole low lying or so-called steppe portion of 

 Siberia. This area is occupied by a settled population and nearly coincides with the so-called 

 cultivated or agricultural zone of Siberia. The principal, it may almost be said, the only forest 

 growth of this zone is the birch with a slight admixture of aspen and t a 1 (salix) upon the 

 damper spots and along the banks of the rivers. Coniferous trees are entirely absent. Merely 

 a few plantations of these species occur on the outskirts of the birch zone, namely those of 

 Borovliansk and Yelets-Ikovsk on the left bank of the Tobol, and Pavlodarsk and Semipala- 

 tinsk upon the right bank of the Irtysh. The two latter estates are outside the birch zone. 



