224 SIBERIA 



the Iirrperial Domains, and he spends a large portion 

 of his time in the saddle, riding from place to place, 

 to enforce obedience and respect for the laws relating 

 to the protection of forests. These men usually go 

 through a special course of training at the St. Peters- 

 burg Institute of Foresters. This may be described 

 as the University of Forestry. There are, however, 

 in the provinces, schools of forestry on lower educa- 

 tional scales. The course of training in these schools 

 lasts two years. After ai forester has gone through 

 the prescribed course, he receives the title of con- 

 ductor and is entitled to a post under the Crown as 

 assistant forester. The Altai forests are the property 

 of the Crown. The region contains 498,228,300 

 acres, of which the Crown owns 291,600,000. 



The commonest tree is a fir {Picea Excelsa), which 

 is particularly abundant in the north of Russia and 

 Siberia. The European fir differs in certain marked 

 respects from' that of Siberia, as does that which 

 grows in the extremte east, in the neighbourhood of 

 the Pacific Ocean, from' that in the Caucasus. In the 

 northern forests of European Russia the fir-tree very 

 often attains a: height of about 90 feet, stripped of 

 branches, with a diameter at the top of 12 inches. 

 Individual trees have been known to grow to the 

 height of 120 feet, with a diameter at the top of 

 30 inches. Some of the trees are 350 years old. 



Next in importance to the fir-tree is the pine {Pinus 

 Silvestris). This tree extends much farther south 

 than the fir, and is particularly plentiful in the Altai, 

 where one species, called the Siberian cedar, is of 

 great value on account of the quantity of nuts it 

 grows. Both the pine and the fir are distinguished in 

 Siberia by the very high quality of their woods. 

 Owing to the cold climate, they grow very slowly, 

 and the grain is therefore exceedingly close. The 

 pine-tree attains a height of 100 feet, in som'e cases 



