Buddhistic temple «K u r e e» in this place, we descended on the 21st of August, in two 

 canoes, the Bei-kem, running here at an average rate of 16 wersts an hour. At Ust 

 Sisti-kem we took along with us the luggage left there, and floated down the river. At 

 the rapids, the so-called p o r o g s, formed by the river near U t i n s k i. we had to 

 disembark all our luggage and carry it downwards on the banks along the river, the 

 boats being towed down-stream, or here and there, where the rapids were too powerful, 

 dragged over land. Under such circumstances the day's journeys became rather short, 

 not exceeding from V2 to 1 werst. but for the rest, this boat expedition on the rapid stream 

 was very quick, our day's journeys varying from 100 to 150 wersts. Here and there on 

 our way, in favourable situations, we made shorter stays to make collections. We passed 

 on this journey the rivers Sebi, Utt, Ujuk, Tapsa, and Chua-kem or Cha- 

 k e m. After the junction with the last-mentioned stream atBjelosarsk, the river 

 runs under the name of the U 1 u - k e m through a rugged mountain steppe about 300 

 wersts westwards to C h a - k u 1. The small village of Cha-kul, where we arrived on 

 September 2ii(i, is the extreme station of the caravans coming through Mongolia, whence 

 the Chinese and Mongolian goods are conveyed down the stream on immense rafts to 

 Minusinsk and Krasnoyarsk. From merchants who happened to pass the place, we 

 learnt of the European confhct having broken out during our stay in the large wooded 

 regions about the sources of the Yenisei. The river further on downwards was difficult 

 or even dangerous to pass in our small canoes, large and swift as it had grown, with 

 many rapids. As a large raft loaded with MongoUan bales of wool was just to start on 

 its way northwards on the following day, we therefore determined to take this oppor- 

 tunity. At K e m c h i k - b o m^ the river runs through narrow clefts with 

 high, vertical, rocky walls on either side, at the furious rate of about 40 wersts an hour, 

 forming shining and whirling rapids, which it would have been most dangerous to 

 attempt to pass in our small boats. In these clefts the boundary between Mongolia and 

 Siberia was passed, and eventually we arrived at Minusinsk again towards the middle 

 of September. An autumn excursion we had intended to make into the steppes in the 

 adjoining district of the town, had to be given up owing to difficulties caused by the 

 great war. 



It appears from the above survey and the following account that, our travelling 

 route being so long and the regions traversed so untrodden, we had to force the journey 

 to the utmost in order to be able to finish it in due time. In this way the journey itself 

 took an excessively long time, and only few spare days I could wholly use for botanical 

 investigations. On a journey of this kind there was, as a matter of course, no opportu- 

 nity whatever for plant-oecological or statistical researches. Accordingly, the information 

 I am able to give in the following chapter concerning the general character of the vege- 

 tation in the tracts traversed, only make pretence to be a general phytogeographic 

 survey. The journey was also mostly undertaken in boats or rafts on the 

 rivers, and only during the short intervals for meals on the banks, could 

 ^ bom = pass. 



