134 FORESTS OF SIBERIA AND TURKESTAN 



area of 311,850 acres apiece ; whilst the average 

 acreage of the forest division exceeds 3,356,100 acres. 

 That is, the average forest division in Siberia is greater 

 than the total acreage of the woods in Great Britain, 

 which amounts to 3,030,000 acres ; or had that area 

 at the commencement of the Great War. Of course 

 all these forest divisions have not this excessive area. 

 The average is high, owing to the enormous extent 

 of a few in Northern Siberia, such as, e.g., one in the 

 Government of Tobolsk which covers a tract of 

 81,000,000 acres. 



Of the total area of 642,600,000 acres of State 

 forest, 297,900,000 acres or 40 per cent, have been 

 constituted regular State Reserves, the remaining 

 345,600,000 acres being still subject to the elimination 

 of areas as allotments to settlers, or for increasing the 

 agricultural holdings of the existing population. To 

 the 642,600,000 acres of forest under the administra- 

 tion of the State have been recently added 118,800,000 

 acres of newly explored forest in parts of the Yakutsk 

 district, and about 10,800,000 acres of forest of com- 

 paratively small value in the Transcaspian district, 

 giving the total area of State forests in Asiatic Russia 

 as approximately 772,200,000 acres. 



These do not, however, form the sole existing 

 forests in the country. Next to the State, the greatest 

 forest owner in the country is the Crown, which possesses 

 some 54,000,000 acres of forest land (chiefly on the 

 Altai), whilst the Cossack population of the Amur 

 district possess about 27,000,000 acres of forest on 

 the left bank of the Amur. Thus those of the forests 

 of Asiatic Russia which are more or less well known 



