As compared willi ollici- parts of Siberia, the Minusinsk region has a very 

 mild and pleasant clinialo, witliout the sudden transitions frequently so charac- 

 teristic of the open Siberian steppes. It is, of course, markedly continental, with 

 very hot summei's and cold winters, in summer with hot days and rather cold 

 nights. In June, a maximum temperature of the day of 40° C. was not unfrequently 

 recorded by us, while the nights were, in return, comparatively cold, now and then with 

 only some few degrees of heat — from 5 to 6° C. — and with an exceedingly heavy 

 dew-fall. At that time of the year, the dew began to appear already before sunset, and 

 was later in the evening so heavy as to i-esemble a fine rain dripping from the trees. This 

 was often observed during our stay on the islets in the river Abakan. The rivers 

 here are free from ice at the end of April or the beginning of May. 



According to (".aiuuithkus the mean annual temperature and rain-fall at Minu- 

 sinsk are: 



Winter: temperature -^ 14,4' C. (January is the coldest month), amount of lain 

 15,2 mm. 



Spring: temperature + 6,1° C, amount of rain 54,8 mm. 



Summer: temperature + 19,4° C. (July is the hottest month), amount of rain 

 141,2 mm. 



Autumn: temperature + 5,6° C, amount of rain 67 mm. 



The most important quantity of rain is seen to fall in summer and in the autumn, 

 amounting to 200 mm. or slightly more, while the snow-fall in winter is rather insigni- 

 ficant. Thus the total average rain-fall at Minusinsk is 278,2 mm., but varies rather much 

 even in neighbouring localities. It increases rapidly southwards and eastwards, towards 

 the Sayansk mountains, being nearly doubled, and reaching 538,5 mm. yearly, at a 

 distance of only 68 wersts from Minusinsk. The character of the scenery is therefore 

 rather suddenly changed, passing into a more rugged and richer tract of land, with a 

 more luxuriant and varying vegetation, with various trees and shrubs. The most northern 

 and western part of the Minusinsk Steppe, where the steppe-land predominates, is 

 accordingly the driest. 



Between the Yenisei to the east and the river Abakan to the west, there extends 

 a large, flat, nearly barren and depopulated steppe, the so-called Abakan Steppe. 

 As I have only traversed a rather small part of it myself, especially the portions about 

 the river Abakan itself and the tracts of land west of it, I shall, in the following, only treat 

 of these parts. It may be added that I have never visited the large steppes towards the 

 Yenisei. The Abakan Steppe itself is certainly more arid than the surroundings of 

 Minusinsk, but there is a total absence of observations as to the meteorological condi- 

 tions of these regions nearly uninhabited. In this di.strict, both the Yenisei and the Abakan 

 are very bi'oad, widening in places so as to form veritable small lakes with a great 

 variety of rather low-lying islets, always exposed to the erosion of the current, so that 

 the borders are generally steep. Frequently larger and smaller quantities of earth slide 

 down when the river has dug out sufficiently to remove the support of the higher strata. 



11 



