places, howevei', the soil is deep and good, consisling of the same kind of black earth 

 as occurs in the fertile territories further to the south-east. Only along the rivers there is 

 moisture enough to constitute grazing-grounds, where no doubt, large areas, if culti- 

 vated, would give rich harvests. Accordingly, only in some few of the said places along 

 the rivers there is a population, few in number, chiefly consisting of Abakan Tatars, the 

 aboriginals of the country, living by breeding of cattle. Besides, here and there a few 

 Russians are to be met with. The steppe being nearly unaffected by human culture and 

 thus preserving its original stamp, there occur only here and there along the patches of 

 field belonging to the scattered Russian population some weeds introduced by human 

 agency. Thus, about the small, cultivated fields at Askys, I have found the following 

 Noxious weeds, plants occuring as weeds: 



Thlaspi arvense, Sinapis alba, Linaria vulgaris, Alectorolophus major, Sonchus 

 oleraceus, Sonchus arvensis, Cannabis saliva, Chenopodium album, Brassica Napus, 

 Euphorbia Esula, Sisymbrium Sophia, Convolvulus arvensis, Atriplex sibiricum, otten 

 associated with Aster allaicus, and Linum perenne. 



There is also further evidence that the earth of the steppe is fertile enough in 

 itself, for in times long past when the climate was moister, there lived here a numerous 

 and mighty tribe, which is no longer in existence. Thousands of burial-mounds, the 



Fig. 16. The Abakan Steppe near Askys. Typical grass-sleppe 

 witli Tschudian monumental stones with inscriptions. 



so-called «Kurgans», bear witness to the former greatness of the steppe, when inhabited 

 by the Tschudes, an expatriated and extinct race having reached a comparatively advan- 

 ced stage of civihzation already at a time when the darkness of barbarism was still broo- 

 ding over Europe. The inscriptions on the tomb-stones, and tools to be found 

 inside the graves, are indications that the said Tschudes mostly lived by farming and 

 by breeding of cattle, their domestic animals consisting of species now extinct here or 



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