WESTERN SIBERIA AND THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS 



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© Underwood & Underwood 



A TUNGUSIAN GIRL OF EASTERN SIBERIA 



The Tunguses are at home throughout central and eastern Siberia, from the Yenisei 

 River to the Pacific. Broad, flat features, with small nose, thin lips, and dark, oblique eyes, 

 are characteristic of this Mongol-Tatar people. They are a cheerful, brave, self-reliant, 

 modest, and hospitable race of hunters, making their home chiefly in the midst of dense 

 forests. 



favor. The greatest want of Siberia is 

 cheaper transportation for its heavy prod- 

 ucts to European markets, especially to 

 those of Germany, France, and England, 

 and that which most reduces the value of 

 its great rivers as freight carriers is the 

 fact that their mouths in the Arctic 

 Ocean are difficult of approach, even in 

 summer, because vessels may get caught 

 in the Kara Sea east of Novaya Zemlya, 

 and even if they reach the Gulf of Ob 



(Obi), may be unable to return with the 

 cargoes they have loaded. 



The employment of wireless telegraphy 

 may be expected to immensely reduce this 

 risk, for by means of it approaching or 

 departing ships could be kept informed 

 from various points regarding those parts 

 of the sea which may be open — and there 

 are always such parts in July and Au- 

 gust — and their course could be directed 

 accordingly. 



