islets, the soil of which is generally very fertile, consisting of black earth, or here and 

 there of more sandy earth. Some of these islets are pretty large, up to several wersts in 

 length, and their surface is roughly on a level with the low steppe along the river, and, 

 like the steppe, quite flat and smooth. There is in these islets moisture enough to con- 

 tribute to the growth of an exceptionally luxuriant vegetation, really constituting small 

 oases in the waste, where are to be found numerous species of plants which have 

 nothing in common with the vegetation of the surrounding steppes. The vegetation is 

 in the main composed of boreal and subboreal species of plants. Several trees and shrubs 

 are to be found here as well, forming here end there dense thickets, from 2 to 5 m. high, 

 for instance of various species of Salix, along the banks, but elsewhere scattered over the 

 islands, interspersed with larger and smaller, open, rich, natural meadows, giving the land 

 an open, park-like appearance. In June the vegetation of the meadows was very luxu- 

 riant, averaging about 75 cm. in height. The flora on a small islet of this description. 



Fig. 5. Natural meadow on an islet in the river Abakan' near Ust Kainuishto. The vegetation 



consists mainly of Thalictrum minus, Thalictrum simplex, Onobryciiis viciaefolia, Hemerocalis /lava, 



Pleiirospermum auslriacum besides various grasses and sedges. In the bacligrounii 



species of Salix. 



about Vs werst long, and 200 to 250 m. broad, situated near Ust Abakansk, and visited by 

 me at the beginning of June, may be mentioned here as an instance of the vegetation in 

 such localities. The soil here consisted of common black earth with smaller fields of 



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