VIII.] 
NEW PROSPECTS FOR SIBERIA. 
397 
difficulty in descending these rivers from the Selenga and the 
Baikal Lake on the one hand, and from the Minusinsk region 
abounding in grain on the other. The banks here consist, in 
many places, of high rocky ridges covered with fine forests, with 
wonderfully beautiful valleys between them, covered with 
luxuriant vegetation. 
What I have said regarding the mode of travelling up the 
Yenisej refers to the year 1875, in which I went up the river 
accompanied by two Swedish naturalists and three Norwegian 
seamen. It was then by no means unknown, for scientific men 
such as Hansteen (1829), Castr^n (1846), Middendorf (winter 
journeys in 1843 and 1844), and Schmidt (1866), had travelled 
hither and communicated their observations to the scientific 
world in valuable works on the nature and people of the region. 
But the visits of the West-European still formed rare exceptions; 
no West-European commercial traveller had yet wandered to 
those regions, and into the calculations of the friendly masters 
of the Yenisej river steamers no import of goods from, or 
export of goods to, Europe had ever entered. All at once a new 
period seemed to begin. If the change has not gone on so fast 
as many expected, life here, however, is more than it was at one 
time, and every year the change is more and more noticeable. 
It is on this account that I consider these notes from the journey 
of 1875 worthy of being preserved. 
