wliicli would no more Ix' ;il)l(' lo slaii;! Ilic (Irvncss ol llic sU'|)|)e.s. I'Ih iciiKiiiis 

 of llio . I'scliiuliaii canals,, Ihrout^h wIikIi walcr was cH)n(luoli'(l into llicii liclds, bear 

 witness to tlu' fact thai already this primitive peojjle here had dilfieulties in proenriii^ the 

 necessary supply of water. 



Apart from llic inscci, llie animal life- of the steppe is now |)oor, and the stillness 

 is here only rarely broken by the melancholy piping of some lonelv biid of the desert 

 or the scratching of a lizard in the dry grass. .\nd the sepulchral mounds that we also 

 meet with here, enhance, as it were, the serenity and (juiel of this dying nature. 



The iSilMM'iaii Taij;ji Territory jiihI fln' rrjankai (Omitry. 



Tlie Transition Zone hehvecn the Steppes and the Primeval Forest. 



As mentioned above, the southern and south-ea.stern parts of the Minusinsk district 

 are nioister. Only at a rather short distance from iVIinusinsk the scenery is changed, the 

 steppe becoming gradually more rugged, and the rather small areas of wood frequently to 

 be met with — generally consisting of pine, birch, and aspen — bear an unmistakable 

 evidence to a greater moisture. Many of the subboreal ])lants characterizing the wester- 

 ly steppe regions, here gradually dissappear, giving way to a vegetation mainly compo- 

 sed of boreal species of plants together with subarctic ones; the latter element especially 

 being successively more frequent when going southwards to the Sayansk mountains, where 

 the subalpine wooded tracts as to floristic conditions bear a markedly subarctic stamp. 



In dry wood ol' Piiuis silncstris. IVeciuenlly in sandy .soil, there occurs here a ground 

 flora especially characterized by the pretty azure Delphinium (irandiflonim. tlu- yellow 

 Scabiosa ochioleiicd, Riime.r Acelosella. Erigeron (tcer var. clnnqalus, Onosiua 

 simplicissimiim. (Ihamaerliodos ererld. and on decliyities [{tipciiciiin rlrfjans. and in 

 thickets Vicitt imijiifja. 



The tract of land traversed during the fir.st three or ioui- days may really be con- 

 sidered as a transition zone between the steppe and the virgin forest further south; it 

 Ibrms, what is called by the lUissians wooded steppes (jitcocTenb) slielches 

 with dry open woods, composed chiefly of various foliage trees — birches, poplars and 

 others, partly also of larch — diversified by larger or smaller steppe-like areas between 

 theme. The soil here nearly everywhere consi.sts of the exceedingly fertile, black 

 earth. 2— 'A m. deep, rich in humus and chalk, and cultivated grounds become more- 

 frequent on proceeding southwards. From the hilltojis here are seen to the .south the 

 pointed and ragged jags of the Sayansk mountains. 



The scenery is, on the whole, very pleasant, a great number of park-like patches of 

 wood having been left among the cultivated fields, and birches often making up veri- 

 table avenues along the roads. In some places the hillsides are overgrown with birches 

 and other foliage trees and with a very luxuriant and varying undergrowth. 



On a slope near the village of Taskina, I have recorded the following plants illu- 

 strating the composition of the vegetation and the striking difference between the 



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