116 A SUMMER ON THE YENESEI 



is developed. There are plenty of coal mines that have 

 never been worked. The people say, " When we have 

 burned up all the wood, then we will dig out the coal." 

 There are hundreds of miles of valuable timber. There 

 are thousands of miles of pasturage. There are minerals 

 of many kinds which have never been prospected. The 

 navigable rivers are the mightiest in the world : 

 nowhere is there any natural bar to a great railroad 

 system. The Russian Government realises the import- 

 ance of developing the northern territory. For instance, 

 the young men of the Lower Ob, Yenesei, and Lena 

 are not called upon for military service, but are 

 encouraged to push forward the colonisation of the land. 

 Nevertheless, the European stock of a country where 

 the climate is so severe as in arctic Siberia, would die 

 out at the third generation if it were not constantly 

 recruited from the south. And naturally the new- 

 comers who settle in those outposts of Asia are not the 

 best of their race. For the most part they are broken 

 men, criminals, and ne'er-do-wells, who have drifted 

 thither in spite of themselves. Of course the political 

 exiles are often of another class ; but an exile, even of 

 the highest type, when removed to lower surroundings 

 and cut off from most of the incentives that urge a man 

 to rise, is more apt to sink to the level of his environ- 

 ment than to improve the tone of his neighbours. 

 Colonisation by deported labour has been tried 

 successfully in some parts of the world, but the colonists 

 must be freed locally, and given a fair chance to start 

 afresh. This unfortunately is not the case in Siberia, 

 where the exiles are constantly hampered by official 



