EASTERN SIBERIA 13 



Siberian firs and stone (arolla) pines are also found 

 in the east. 



The lower vegetation differs very little from that of 

 northern and central Europe, indeed, a large propor- 

 tion of the species of bushes and herbs are common to 

 Europe and Siberia. One would find bramble and wild 

 rose, whortle- and other berry bushes, even aconites, 

 monkshoods, geraniums, and stately umbelliferae in the 

 pastures and meadows, but the ling is absent. 



Despite the prevalence of forests, however, tree- 

 growth is not luxuriant. Siberian forests are stunted, 

 and the trees, hung and padded with mosses and lichens, 

 reach no great height or thickness, but bear the 

 imprint of the inimical conditions of the climate. 

 They are also confined to relatively low altitudes. 

 Thus, on the Lena, by 64 N. they stop below 700 feet. 

 North of that latitude, the forest growth becomes 

 increasingly scattered and dwarfed, pastures and 

 meadows, moors, and stretches of tundra filling the 

 intervening spaces. This is a condition similar to that 

 in the backwoods of the northern Canadian forest, to 

 which this east Siberian taiga corresponds exactly. 



Thanks to the hot summer, coupled with a moderate 

 rainfall, northern agriculture is possible in eastern 

 Siberia. Dairy-farming and stock-breeding find there 

 an excellent field ; and grain crops are capable of a great 

 development. 



Amuria Korea Sakhalin Hokkaido (Yezo). This is 

 on the whole, a mountainous region lying to the north of 

 the Ilchuri-Alin and the Little Khingan, and including 

 the basin of the Ussuri and the upper basin of the 

 Sungari. It consists mainly of a series of ranges and 

 valleys parallel with the coast-line, and contains the 

 broad valleys of the lower and middle Amur. 



