Vol. XII, No. 9 



WASHINGTON September, 1901 



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MATIIOMAL 

 ©(SIRAIPIHIl 

 AOAM 



SIBERIA 



By Prof. Edwin A. Grosvenor 



MY subject is in striking contrast 

 to the subjects upon which 

 during this Lenten course 

 learned lecturers have spoken from this 

 platform. Their topics have been India, 

 China, and southwestern Asia. Under 

 the latter term were grouped Chaldea, 

 Babylonia, Persia, Judea, and Arabia — ■ 

 that is, thc)^ have pictured the empires 

 which are most ancient and the civiliza- 

 tion the most hoary. In graphic resume 

 they have described what was accom- 

 plished on the venerable banks of the 

 Ganges and Indus and Hoang-ho, of the 

 Tigris and Euphrates and Jordan. The 

 very mention of those regions suggests 

 ever3^thing that is splendid and old. 

 The distinguished Vice-President of this 

 Society, when he sums up what his pred- 

 ecessors have said and supplies all that 

 they have omitted, will have as his topic 

 "Asia, the cradle of the race." 



My subject, Siberia, evokes no asso- 

 ciation of ancient greatness and achieve- 

 ment. Its meagre history is confined to 

 the last few centuries. Rich currents of 

 human life have never flowed across it. 

 The past of China, India, and southwest- 

 ern Asia teems with powder and wealth 

 and glory. The past of Siberia has been 

 in almost every mind only the synonym 



of polar dreariness and desolation coupled 

 wath penal settlements and convict sta- 

 tions. 



But what are India, Babylonia, Judea, 

 and Arabia today ? What influence do 

 they in their present state exert upon 

 the advance of humanity ? Is there any 

 indication of future or even present 

 grandeur in the shadow they now cast 

 upon the world's map? Even China, 

 the long-lived empire, in whose antiquity 

 cycles seem like years, has as its highest 

 concern merely to exist, merely to defer 

 for a season the dismemberment and dis- 

 solution which, however long delayed, 

 are ultimately sure. 



From them, dead or dying, we turn 

 northward to Siberia, to that enormous 

 tract which reaches from the Altai 

 Mountains to the Arctic Ocean, from 

 the Urals to the Pacific. No prophetic 

 e3'e is needed, only the eye which see- 

 ing causes foresees results, to anticipate 

 the day when Siberia itself shall be the 

 greater Russia of the centuries which 

 are to come. 



THE TWO CONQUESTS 



Prior to this great result two con- 

 quests were necessary. The first con- 



