204 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



TAKTAii ENCAMP.ME.NT. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



SIBERIA— FrR-TRADE AND GOLD-DIGGINGS. 



Siberia. — Its immense Extent and Capal)ilities. — The Exiles.— ^Slentsdiikoff. — Dolf;oroiiky. — Miinicli.— 

 The Criininals. — The free Sil)erian Peasant.— Extremes of Heat and Cold. — Fnr-bearint; Animals. — 

 Tiie Sable. — The Ermine. — Tiie Siberian Weasel.— The Sea-otter. — The black Fox. — The Lynx. — 

 The S(iiiirnl. — The varyint; Hare. — The Suslik. — Importance of the Fur-trade for the Northern 



* Provinces of the Russian Empire. — The Gokl-di^i^inirs of Eastern Siberia. — The Taij^a. — Expenses 

 and Difficulties of searchinijj Exp'ditions. — Costs of Produce, and enormous Profits of successful 

 Speculators. — Their senseless Extravagance. — First Discovery of Gold in tiie Ural Mountains. — 

 Jakuwlew and Deniidow. — Nishne-Tagilsk. 



OTBERIA is at least tliirty times more e.vtensive than Great Britain and Ire- 

 '^ land, but its scanty population forms a miserable contrast to its enormous 

 size. Containing scarcely three millions of inliabitants, it is comparatively 

 three hundred times less peopled tlian tlie British Islands. This small ])opula- 

 tion is, moreover, very unequally distributed, consisting chiefly of Russians and 

 Tartars, who have settled in the south or in the milder west, along the rivers 

 and tlic ]irincipMl thoroughfares wliich lead from the territory of one large 

 stream to the other. In the northern and eastern districts, as far as they are 

 occupied, the settlements are likewise almost entirely confined to the river- 

 banks ; and thus the greater part of the enormous forest-lands, and of the in- 

 terminable tmidras, are either entirely uninhabited by man, or visited only by 

 the huntsman, the gold-digger, or the migratory savage. 



And yet Siberia has not been so niggardly treated by Nature as not to be 



