372 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap . 
nomad can find a scanty livelihood, there lies a widely extended 
forest territory, difficult of cultivation, and in its natural condi¬ 
tions, perhaps, somewhat resembling Sweden and Finland north 
of 60° or 61° N.L. South of this wooded belt, again, we have, 
both in Siberia and America, immeasurable stretches of an 
exceedingly fertile soil, of whose power to repay the toil of the 
cultivator the grain exports during recent years from the fron¬ 
tier lands between the United States and Canada have afforded 
so striking evidence. There is, however, this dissimilarity 
between Siberia and America, that while the products of the 
soil in America may be carried easily and cheaply to the 
harbours of the Atlantic and the Pacific, the best part of 
Siberia, that which lies round the upper part of the courses of 
the Irtisch-Ob and the Yenisej, is shut out from the great 
oceans of the world by immense tracts lying in front of it, and 
the great rivers which in Siberia cross the country and appear 
to be intended by nature to form not only the arteries for its 
inner life, but also channels of communication with the rest of 
the world, all flow towards the north and fall into a sea which, 
down to the most recent times, has been considered completely 
inaccessible. 
Of these rivers the double river, Ob-Irtisch, with its numerous 
affluents, occupies an area of more than 60,000 geographical 
square miles, the Yenisej-Angara, not quite 50,000, and the 
Lena, somewhat over 40,000.^ As the map of the river system 
1 In order not to write without due examination about figures which 
liave been written about a thousand times before, I have, with the help of 
Petermann’s map of North and Middle Asia in Stieler’s Hand-Atlas, cal¬ 
culated the extent of the areas of the Siberian rivers, and found them 
to be 
Square Geographical 
kilometres. square miles. 
Eiver area of the Ob (with the Tas) ... 3,445,000 62,560 
,, „ ,, Yenisej . 2,712,000 49,250 
,, ,, ,, Lena... ... ... 2,395,000 43,500 
Of these areas 4,966,000 square kilometres, or about 90,000'geographical 
square miles, lie south of 60° N.L. 
