stock for the future, was wanting. The fact that some of the trees occurring are still 

 sound, and the absence of coal and charred trunks in the ground bear a clear evidence 

 that no conflagration was the cause of the decay of the forest here. The exsiccating 

 forest might here actually be followed in all its phases. It is a pervading trait which I 

 noticed everywhere, especially near the limits of the forest area, that the forest is falling 

 into decay and disappearing over stretches where it was formerly prevalent, and this 

 fact shows us more plainly than anything else that also at this day climatic changes are 

 proceeding and that the forest here is doomed. It is the last desperate fight of the forest 

 against an enemy of superior strength, the deadly drought, of which we are witnesses 

 here. Soon its last remains vanish here, and the open, dry steppe scenery begins to 

 prevail. Thus, there is now no stable relation in the floral conditions of these places. 



These facts, which are obvious in so many places and in so many different condi- 

 tions, carry evidence, in my opinion, that at present, in the interior of Asia, a climatic 

 change towards a drier (and possibly also hotter?) time is proceeding, and hereby an 

 acceptable explanation may also be found why the forest — especially in the lower 

 and accordingly drier regions — has so much difficulty in invading areas again from 



Fig. 39. Drying up forest near the river Tshernoretska, about 900 m. above sea-level. In the 

 foreground natives — Soyotes — riding on their reindeer. 



67 



