In point of natural conditions, these wooded regions agree rather per- 

 fectly with the large forests also to be found on the southern declivities of the Sayansk 

 mountains in the so-called Urjankai country. Only the most northern parts of the Sayansk 

 mountains belong to Siberia. The political frontier between Siberia and China, to which 

 the Urjankai belongs, as forming a part of Mongolia, follows roughly the water-shed 

 situated here at a distance of only about 150 wersts south of Kushabar. On the other hand, 

 most of the mountains thus belong to the Urjankai country, filling up this nearly 

 unknown region about the sources of the Yenisei. This, the Upper Yenisei Basin, 

 which I passed through during the following months, is bounded on the north and west 

 by the watershed of the Sayansk mountains, on the east by the Baikal mountains, on 

 the south by the Tannu-Ola or Snowy mountains. The country is thus almost surrounded 

 by high mountain masses, which form a secluded basin, and the bulk of which is 

 situated in latitude 50—54°, and in longitude 90—100°. The greatest extent of the land is 

 from the east to the west, and it is traversed throughout its length by the river Yenisei 

 or Bei-kem, receiving here a great number of large tributaries from the mountains. The 

 Urjankai country is reckoned to cover about 150.000 square wersts, of which nearly 

 one third is likely to be arable ground. There are extensive grazing-grounds, affording 

 excellent food for cattle. 



In point of topography, the country is mountainous, being filled up with the 

 Sayansk mountains and their spurs. Out of the forest there rise lofty mountains with 

 white peaks, one behind the other, as far as the eye reaches. For thousands of wersts 

 this gloomy, mountainous country lies quite waste and uninhabited, only rarely visited 

 by some vagrant nomad. In this snow-clad mountain region, wooded valleys form 

 indentations here and there, where the game leads an existence as undisturbed as in few 

 other places in the world. The highest mountain masses are to be found in the east and 

 north-east, where the Munku-Sardyk runs up to 3490 m., and where the Yenisei is con- 

 sidered to have its sources. 



To the south and west the land becomes drier and lower, and near the Ulu-kem it 

 is an arid, barren rock-steppe, passing directly into the Mongolian table-land across the 

 dry and nearly treeless Tannu-Ola. 



The Sayansk mountains are the most northern of the three mountain ranges 

 extending east-wards from the Kolyvan Altai. 



The mountains consist of various eruptive rocks, such as granite, syenite, porphyry, 

 diabaze, diorits, etc., which have forced their way through the layer of the Devonian 

 formation, carrying away, or, for a great part, covering the Devonian slates. In the 

 boundary area, gneisses and metamorphic schists are first to be met with, and in the out- 

 skirts, the reddish-brown Devonian slates have been left as larger or smaller remains on 

 the sides of the eruptive rocks down the mountain sides. In places layers from the Silurian 

 and Carboniferous periods are to be met with near the boundaries of the eruptive rocks. 



The mountains are not distinguished by any imposing altitudes, the highest summit 

 being, as mentioned above, the Munku-Sardyk in the most eastern part of the hiountain 



36 



