SIBERIAN HIGHLANDS 65 



Orkhon and Tola. It consists of an admixture of pastures 

 and scattered woods. 



Approaching Amuria, some of the broad-leaved, 

 summer-green trees of the latter region, such as the 

 walnut, now begin to appear, while denizens of the 

 northern tundras and mountains penetrate far south 

 along the naked ridges of the Jablonoi. The plateaus of 

 Vitim and Aldan, which slant from the edge of the 

 Jablonoi towards Baikal, are of the nature of park- 

 like, subalpine pastures and moors, comparable with the 

 plateaus of British Columbia. 



The importance of the Siberian highlands, especially 

 of the southern slopes, is great in the life of the Mon- 

 golian tribes, for the upper slopes provide excellent 

 summer pastures at a time when the adjacent steppes 

 are scorched and dry. Populations leave the burnt 

 steppes every summer and betake themselves and their 

 herds to the fresh and luxuriant grazing- grounds of the 

 mountains, and this is the easier on account of the 

 scattered nature of the forest belt. On the northern 

 side, the colder climate and the darker forests remain 

 serious obstacles for the herdsmen. Hence the tide of 

 nomadism, which rises every year from the scorched 

 plains on the south up the southern mountains, is 

 arrested by the forests more than by the mountains 

 themselves. There is no apparent reason why some kind 

 of agriculture should not be practised locally along the 

 rivers. Wherever water is available, the soil offers 

 a generous reward to human efforts, but this is true only 

 of the valleys, for the upper slopes are too cold for pro- 

 fitable cultivation. 



Mongolia. That vast inland basin, which stretches 

 from the Khingans to the Tian Shan and Pamirs, and 

 from the Siberian highlands to the Altyn Tagh, is 



1169.1 W 



