way for others. But even after this dense sea of herbs, to apply Kbassnow's own term, 

 becoming thin and being in the course of time successively replaced by others growing 

 less densely, the coniferous forest many times seemed not to be able to force a way still, 

 especially at lower elevations. Here Kbassnow's theory utterly fails to satisfy us. And 

 why should the herbs growing out and covering the ground after a forest- fire at higher 

 elevations be less dense than lower down? Nor did this, besides, seem to be the case 

 at all, as the mountain sides here are just, from my experience, very luxuriant and 

 densely grown. The supposed supersession of the forest for always by herbs in this 

 way is also, in my opinion, the more improbable because, on the contrary, as is well- 

 known and all experience shows, a forest cover just forms the final phase — the 

 climax formation — in the development of the vegetation, save for places where factors 

 as humidity, cold and drought put obstacles in the way of the generation 

 of the trees. 



The explanation of this fact that the vegetation here, in an essentially different 

 degree, seemed to change its character, must no doubt be attributed to more deep seated 

 causes. As we have seen, the conditions appear, as to that, to be identical both in the 

 Altai and in the Sayansk regions. By considering this in connection with a series of 

 other phenomena here, I have arrived at the view that at present a slow dis- 

 placement of the climatic conditions towards a drier 

 epoch, and, as a consequence, also corresponding changes 

 in Ihe floral conditions are proceeding in the interior of Asia. 



I will now enlarge upon my reasons for maintaining this view. 



Already when commenting on the Abakan Steppe, I mentioned the solitary larches 

 only occurring here and there, especially near the summits of the sandstone hills in this 

 region. I supposed these were to be considered as the last remains of the forests of 

 the past, for roots of trees in the ground here are an irrefutable evidence that also 

 the lower steppe proper was once wooded, which again implies a considerably moister 

 climate at that time. I will here, for the sake of completeness, also call attention to the other 

 evidences of a colder, at least a subarctic climate in former times, which I have found on 

 the south Siberian steppes, more precisely mentioned on page 39. The old Tsudian tombs 

 with their contents also prove that in times long past, the country here was inhabited 

 by a numerous and mighty people, living, to judge from their properties left in the tombs 

 and the rock-carvings, by farming and breeding of cattle. Their domestic animals were 

 also, according to the rock-carvings, animals which are no longer in existence or would 

 not now be able to stand the dryness and heat of these steppes at all. In connection with 

 this I will also call to mind that remains after a corresponding ancient culture and coloni- 

 zation are recovered on the steppes south of the Sayansk mountains, in tracts which, 

 are now quite uninhabitable on account of the drought, and, accordingly, at present 

 waste and desolate. In this connection, the great old road is highly interesting, which, 

 to judge from the remains, existed in the western part of the Soyote Steppe, between 

 Cha-kul and Kemchik, and was about a hundred wersts long. This road leads through 



Conditions in- 

 dicating that 

 the climate in 

 former times 

 was moister in 

 the Sayanslc re- 

 gion. 



G5 



