THE FORESTS AND SPORT OF SIBERIA. 121 



its special character everywhere, and the same picture is repeated a 

 hundred times, satiating and blunting the senses till one becomes 

 almost incapable of recognizing or appreciating the charms of any 

 scene. Thus it is that we seldom hear anyone speak with apprecia- 

 tion, much less with enthusiasm, of the scenery of this wide region, 

 although it certainly deserves both and, thus, gradually there has 

 become fixed in our minds an impression of Siberia which refuses 

 correction with an obstinacy proportionate to its falseness. Siberia 

 is thought of as a terrible ice-desert, without life, without variety, 

 without charm, as a frozen land under the curse of heaven and of 

 miserable exiles. But it is entirely forgotten that Siberia includes 

 a full third of Asia, and that a region which is almost twice as large 

 as the whole of Europe, which extends from the Ural to the Pacific 

 Ocean, from the Arctic sea to the latitude of Palermo, cannot 

 possibly be excessively monotonous nor uniform in all its parts. 

 But people usually picture only one district of Siberia, and even that 

 in a false light. 



In truth the country is richer in variety than any one has hither- 

 to described it. Mountains interrupt and bound the plains, both 

 are brightened by flowing and standing water, the sun floods hills 

 and valleys with shimmering light and gleaming colour, lofty trees 

 and beautiful flowers adorn the whole land, and men live happily, 

 joyous in their homes. 



Of course there are undeniable wildernesses even now in Siberia, 

 and these, along with the likewise real ice-deserts, the tundras, do, 

 to a certain extent, justify the popular impression. Dreary also 

 are the forests which lie between the tundra and the steppes, and 

 form the third zone. In them man never ventures to establish him- 

 self ; on them the industry of the settlers along their borders make 

 relatively little impression; within them the forces of nature hold 

 absolute sway, creating and destroying without interference. The 

 flame of heaven sets the trees ablaze, the raging winter-storm 

 hurls them to the ground; the forests rise and disappear without 

 any human control, and may in the fullest sense of the word be 

 called primeval. Full of mystery they attract, and at the same 

 time inhospitably repel; inviting they seem to the hunter, but 



