208 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



' there are no thieves among us.' This may appear strange, but it must be re- 

 membered that the Tomsk wagoners, described above, are located far more to 

 the east, and that every exiled criminal has his prescribed circuit, the bounds 

 of which he may not pass without incurring the penalty of being sent to the 

 mines. 



According to Professor Hansteen, the Siberian peasants are the finest men 

 of all Russia, with constitutions of iron. With a sheepskin over their shirt, 

 and their thin linen trowsers, they bid defiance to a cold of 30° and more. They 

 have nothing of the dirty avarice of the European Russian boor ; they have as 

 much land as they choose for cultivation, and the soil furnishes all they require 

 for their nourishment and clothing. Their cleanliness is exemplary. Within 

 the last thirty years the gold-diggings have somewhat spoilt this state of prim- 

 itive simplicity, yet even Hofmann allows that the West-Siberian peasant has 

 retained much of the honesty and hospitality for which he was justly celebrated. 



Besides agriculture, mining, fishing, and hunting, the carriage of merchan- 

 dise is one of the chief occupations of the Siberians, and probably, in propor- 

 tion to the population, no other country employs so large a number of wagon- 

 ers and carriers. The enormous masses of copper, lead, iron, and silver pro- 

 duced by the Altai and the Nertschinsk mountains, have to be conveyed from 

 an immense distance to the Russian markets. The gold from the East-Siberian 

 diggings is indeed easier to transport, but the provisions required by the thou- 

 sands of workmen employed during the summer in working the auriferous 

 sands, have to be brought to them, frequently from a distance of many hundred 

 versts. 



The millions of furs, from the squirrel to the bear, likewise require consider- 

 able means of transport ; and, finally, the highly important caravan-trade with 

 China conveys thousands of bales of tea from Kiachta to Irbit. Siberia has in- 

 deed many navigable rivers, but a glance at the map shows us at once that they 

 are so situated as to afford far less facilities to commerce than would be the 

 case in a more temperate climate. They all flow northward into an inhospita- 

 ble sea, which is forever closed to navigation, and are themselves ice-bound dur- 

 ing the greater part of the year. Enormous distances separate them from each 

 other, and there are no navigable canals to unite them. 



On some of the larger rivers steam-boats have indeed been introduced, and 

 railroads are talked of; but there can be no doubt that, for many a year to 

 come, the cart and the sledge will continue to be the chief means of transport 

 in a country which, in consequence of its peculiar geographical position, is even 

 in its more southern parts exposed to all the rigors of an Arctic winter. 



Thus at Jakutsk (62° N". lat.), which is situated but six degrees farther to 

 the north than Edinburgh (55° 58'), the mean temperature of the coldest month 

 is —40°, and mercury a solid body during one-sixth part of the year; while at 

 Irkutsk (52° 16' N". lat.), situated but little farther to the north than Oxford 

 (51° 46'), the thermometer frequently falls to —30°, or even —40° ; tempera- 

 tures which are of course quite unheard of on the banks of the Isis. For these 

 dreadful winters in the heart of Siberia, and under comparatively low degrees 

 of latitude, there are various causes. The land is, in the first place, an imnaense 



