of day and night, winter and summer. The winter is severe, the temperature sinking 

 down to -f- 30 — 40° C, and, as a rare exception, still lower in alpine situations, but 

 hardly as severe as the winter on the open Siberian steppes. On the other hand, the 

 short and luxuriant summer is very hot, with temperatures rising to + 40° C. in the 

 middle of the day, and not unfrequently sinking in the course of bright nights to degrees 

 of frost. At that time of the year heavy rainfalls may occur, continuing without inter- 

 mission for several, days, often accompanied by heavy thunder-storms. The spring gene- 

 rally begins suddenly about the middle of April, when the Ulu-kem becomes free from 

 ice, the wintry weather changing in a very short time into an intense heat, making the 

 rivers swell very quickly, due to the water from the melting snows, carrying away 

 everything that comes in their way. Great numbers of fallen trees are swept down the 

 whirling, dirty-grey streams, and may be heaped up in immense piles on the banks. In 

 places, pieces of timber with thorn off branches were heaped up in such masses as to 

 form mighty mounds, looking as if they had been built on purpose. These masses of 

 drift wood give the rivers in the Sayansk district a certain wild appearance. 



The summer is luxuriant and fiflie, but short. In May everything shoots up sud- 

 denly, but at the end of July or the beginning of August, the plants already begin to 

 wither on account of the night-frost commencing early. The first snow makes its 

 appearance on the mountains already at the end of August. On the morning of the 21st 

 of July I found the fields about Ust Algiac, 980 m. above sea-level, covered with rime. 

 In spite of the continental situation there is, however, no want of rain, the middle annual 

 rainfall being about 500 — 600 mm., while, in eastern Siberia, the average amount of rain 

 only slightly exceeds 300 mm. The great moisture and therewith the wood is con- 

 fined to the more elevated mountain tracts, above all on their northern sides. In places 

 where the annual rainfall does not reach 200 mm., the wood disappears, and the steppe 

 begins. The most important quantity of rain falls in the summer and autumn, and 

 July is considered to have the greatest rainfall. The amount of rain is, however, very 

 unequally distributed, and is subjected to considerable local variations. There is 

 plenty of rain in the north and west parts of the mountains as well as at the great 

 central elevations, but it decreases quickly southwards and south-westwards, the total 

 annual rainfall about the Ulu-kem and Kemchik scarcely exceeding 200 — 300 mm. In 

 winter, the precipitation is rather inconsiderable, and the amount of snow in this region 

 accordingly very small, being about 15 cm., according to the statements of the natives. 

 The cattle are therefore enabled to stay in the open and find their food in the grazing- 

 grounds the whole winter. It is quite otherwise in the centre of the mountains and on 

 the Siberian side of them, where the snow is often 3 m. deep. During the frequent 

 storms the snow is heaped up in huge drifts, continuing till far into the summer before 

 melting, if disappearing at all. Northerly or north-westerly winds are mostly prevalent. 

 At altitudes exceeding 2200 — 2300 m. above sea-level, the ground is covered with peren- 

 nial snow and ice, and from the glaciers larger and smaller rivers take their rise, 

 finally uniting into the mighty river system of the Yenisei. 



41 



