I 93-] Allen, Mammals from Northeast Siberia. IOQ 



Gichiga, a height of 1500 to 1800 feet, while those 40 miles 

 distant to the southeastward rise to 3500 feet or more. No 

 timber is found on them. The smaller valleys which the 

 Gichiga and Ovecho have cut out are separated by a high, 

 triangular section of country, which begins at the head of 

 Gichiginski Gulf as a high cliff of recent sandstone, half a mile 

 wide and called Maiak Point, and which separates their 

 mouths. The Gichiga is a rapid, shallow stream about 70 

 miles long, and flows in a generally north and south direction. 

 At Kooshka, three miles above its mouth, it is 175 yards wide; 

 below this point it rapidly broadens and is filled with bars and 

 flats. The Ovecho is somewhat smaller and flows in a south- 

 westerly direction from the Taiganose Mountains. The river- 

 bottoms near the sea are destitute of trees, but further up they 

 are filled with small willows and alders, and at a distance of 

 25 or 30 miles contain a thick growth of larch large enough 

 for building material. Still further up there are also birch 

 and poplars. 



Formerly the mouth of the Gichiga River was four miles 

 above its present location, where the river is hemmed in by 

 hills on either side, but the gradual rising of the whole valley, 

 shown by the deep deposit of waterworn material all over it, 

 and the deposition of silt at the head of the Gulf, have moved 

 it down to its present position at Maiak Point. At low tide 

 the bottom of the Gichiginski Gulf is exposed for a distance 

 two miles out from Maiak Point as a great mud-flat, extend- 

 ing clear across the head of the Gulf, a distance of eight miles. 

 On this account the vessels anchor about 20 miles out from 

 Maiak, opposite the rocky inlet, Matuga, on the Taiganose 

 side, in 12 fathoms of water. The tides are high and irregu- 

 lar. The difference between high and low water is perhaps 

 nearly 20 feet, and at high tide the water is backed up in 

 the rivers for nearly four miles. It is only at this time that 

 one can row a boat up-stream: above slack water it must be 

 towed. 



The town of Gichiga is situated on the east bank of the 

 Gichiga River, 15 miles above its mouth, and is one of the 

 oldest settlements in Siberia, having been located by a party 



