Peter Kropotkin and John Thomas Bealby

“ The southern parts of Tobolsk, nearly all the government of Tomsk (exclusive of the Narym region) , southern Yeniseisk and southern Irkutsk, have in an average year a surplus of grain varying from 35 to 40% of the total crop, but in bad years the crop falls short of the actual needs of the population. There is considerable movement of grain in Siberia itself, the populations of vast portions of the territory, especially of the mining regions, having to rely upon imported corn. ”

“ Commerce.—There are no figures from which even an approximate idea can be gained as to the value of the internal trade of Siberia, but it is certainly considerable. The great fair at Irbit retains its importance, and there are, besides, over 500 fairs in Tobolsk and over 100 in other parts of the region. The aggregate returns of all these are estimated at £2,643,000 annually. The trade with the natives continues to be mainly the sale of spirits. ”

“ The chief grain-producing regions of Siberia are—the Tobol and Ishim region, the Baraba, the region about Tomsk and the outskirts of the Altai. The Minusinsk district, one of the richest in Siberia (45,000 inhabitants, of whom 24,000 are nomadic) , has more than 45,000 acres under crops. Mining, the second industry in point of importance, is dealt with above. ”

“ The natural rate of increase of population is very slow as a rule, and does not exceed 7 or 8 per 1000 annually. The great mortality, especially among the children, is one of the causes of this, the birth-rate being also lower than in Russia. The climate of Siberia, however, cannot be called unhealthy, except in certain localities where goitre is common, as it is on the Lena, in several valleys of Nerchinsk and in the Altai Mountains. The rapid growth of the actual population is chiefly due to immigration. ”

“ More dreaded than the frosts are the terrible burans or snowstorms, which occur in early spring and destroy thousands of horses and cattle that have been grazing on the steppes throughout the winter. Although very heavy falls of snow take place in the alpine tracts—especially about Lake Baikal—on the other side, in the steppe regions of the Altai and Transbaikalia and in the neighbourhood of Krasnoyarsk, the amount of snow is so small that travellers use wheeled vehicles, and cattle are able to find food in the steppe. ”

“ Primary education is in a very unsatisfactory state, and primary schools very scarce. The petitions for a university at Irkutsk, the money required for which has been freely offered to the government, have been refused, and the imperative demands of the local tradesmen for technical instruction have likewise met with little response. The Tomsk University remains incomplete, and has only 560 students. There are nevertheless eighteen scientific societies in Siberia, which issue publications of great value. ”

“ The high plains of the west slope of the plateau are also rich prairies diversified with woods. Nearly all the species of plants which grow on these prairies are common to Europe (paeonies, Hemerocallis, asters, pinks, gentians, violets, Cypripedium, Aquilegia, Delphinium, aconites, irises and so on) ; but here the plants attain a much greater size; a man standing erect is often hidden by the grasses. The flora of Minusinsk—the Italy of Siberia—is well known ”

“ Hunting.—Hunting is a profitable occupation, the male population of whole villages in the hilly and woody tracts setting out in October for a month's hunting. The sable, however, which formerly constituted the wealth of Siberia, is now exceedingly scarce. Squirrels, bears, foxes, arctic foxes, antelopes and especially deer in spring are the principal objects of the chase. ”

“ Agriculture.—Agriculture is the chief occupation both of the settled Russians and of the native population. South Siberia has a very fertile soil and yields heavy crops, but immense tracts of the country are utterly unfit for tillage. Altogether it is estimated that not more than 500,000 sq. m. are suitable for cultivation. The aggregate is thus distributed—192,000 sq. m. in West Siberia, 20,000 in Akmolinsk and Semipalatinsk, 100,000 in East Siberia, 85,000 in Transbaikalia, 40,000 in Amur, and 63,000 in Usuri. ”

“ The Amur region shares the characteristics of the north Chinese fauna. On the whole, we may say that the arctic and boreal faunas of Europe extend over Siberia, with a few additional species in the Ural and Baraba region—a number of new species also appearing in East Siberia, some spreading along the high plateau and others along the lower plateau from the steppes of the Gobi. The arctic fauna is very poor. ”

“ The Mongols (less than 300,000) extend into West Siberia from the high plateau—nearly 20,000 Kalmucks living in the eastern Altai. In East Siberia the Buriats occupy the Selenga and the Uda, parts of Nerchinsk, and the steppes between Irkutsk and the upper Lena, as also the Baikal Mountains and the island of Orkhon; they support themselves chiefly by live-stock breeding, but some, especially in Irkutsk, are agriculturists. On the left of the Amur there are some 60,000 Chinese and Manchurians about the mouth of the Zeya, and 26,000 Koreans on the Pacific coast. ”

“ As an independent pursuit, live-stock breeding is carried on by the Russians in eastern Transbaikalia, by the Yakuts in the province of Yakutsk, and by the Buriats in Irkutsk and Transbaikalia, but elsewhere it is secondary to agriculture.Live
stock. Both cattle-breeding and sheep-grazing are more profitable than dairying; but the Kirghiz herds are not well tended, being left to graze on the steppes all the year, where they perish from wild animals and the cold. The live stock includes some 180,000 camels.
Bee-keeping is widely carried on, especially in Tomsk and the Altai. ”

“ Altogether West Siberia yields annually 130,000 oz. of gold. The gold-bearing gravels of East Siberia, especially those of the Lena and the Amur, are relatively more prolific than those of West Siberia. The total yield annually amounts to some 700,000 oz., the largest quantity coming from the Olekminsk district in the province of Yakutsk, and this district is followed by the Amur region, the Maritime province, and Nerchinsk and Transbaikalia. Silver and lead ores exist in the Altai and the Nerchinsk Mountains, as well as copper, cinnabar and tin. ”

“ The mineral wealth of Siberia is considerable. Gold-dust is found in almost all the alpine regions fringing the great plateau. The principal gold-mining regions in these tracts are the Minerals.Altai, the Upper (or Nizhne-Udinsk) and the lower (or Yeniseisk) taigas, and the Olekma region. Gold is found on the high plateau in the basin of the upper Vitim, on the lower plateau in the Nerchinsk district, and on the upper tributaries of the Amur (especially the Oldoi) and the Zeya, in the north-east continuation of the Nerchinsk Mountains. ”

“ In the external trade the exports to Russia consist chiefly of grain, cattle, sheep, butter and other animal products, furs, game, feathers and down. The production of butter for export began only in 1894, but grew with great rapidity. In 1902 some 1800 dairies were at work, the greater number in West Siberia, and 40,000 tons of butter were exported. The total trade between Russia and China amounts to about £5,500,000 annually, of which 87% stands for imports into Russia and 13% for exports to China. ”

“ Later on serfdom, religious persecutions and conscription were the chief causes which led the peasants to make their escape to Siberia and build their villages in the most inaccessible forests, on the prairies and even on Chinese territory. ”

“ Mining is the next most important industry after agriculture. In East Siberia gold is obtained almost exclusively from gravel-washings, quartz mining being confined to three localities, one near Vladivostok and two in Transbaikalia. ”

“ But it is known that in the first years of the 19th century nearly 2000 persons were transported every year to Siberia. This figure reached an average of 18,250 in 1873–1877, and from about 1880 until the discontinuance of the system in 1900 an average of 20,000 persons were annually exiled to Siberia. After liberation the hard-labour convicts are settled in villages; but nearly all are in a wretched condition, and more than one-third have disappeared without being accounted for. ”

“ When the water in the upper Amur is low, vessels are sometimes unable to reach the Shilka. Another route of importance before the conquest of the Amur is that which connects Yakutsk with Okhotsk or Ayan. Regular postal communication is maintained by the Russians between Kiakhta and Kalgan (close by Peking) across the desert of Gobi.
The first railway to reach Siberia was built in 1878, when a line was constructed between Perm, at which point travellers for Siberia used to strike off from the Kama eastwards, and Ekaterinurg, Railways.on the eastern slope of the Urals. ”

“ Examples are the Ob and the Irtysh, the Yenisei and the Angara (itself a double river formed by the Angara and the Lower Tunguzka) , the Lena and the Vitim, the Arguñ and the Shilka, while the Amur in its turn receives a tributary as large as itself—the Sungari. Owing to this twinning and the general direction of their courses, the rivers of Siberia offer immense advantages for inland navigation, not only from north to south but also from west to east. It is this circumstance that facilitated the rapid invasion of SiberiaWater communication. by the Russian Cossacks and hunters ”

“ Patches of perpetual snow occur in East Siberia only on the mountains of the far north. On the Altai Mountains the snow-line runs at about 7000 ft. The air, after being chilled on the plateaus during the winter, drifts, owing to its greater density, down upon the lowlands; hence in the region of the lower Lena there obtains an exceedingly low temperature throughout the winter, and Verkhoyansk, in 67°N., is the pole of cold of the eastern hemisphere. The average temperature of winter (December to February) at Yakutsk is −40.2° F., at Verkhoyansk −53.1°. ”

“ In the depression between the Bureya range and the coast ranges it suffers greatly from the heavy July and August rains, and from inundations, while on the lower Amur the agriculturists barely maintain themselves by growing cereals in clearances on the slopes of the hills, so that the settlements on the lower Amur and Usuri continually require help from government to save them from famine. ”

“ These plains, which are entered by the great Siberian highway about Tomsk and extend south-west to the Altai Mountains,Elevated
plains. are for the most part fertile, though sometimes dry, and are rapidly being covered with the villages of the Russian immigrants. About Kansk in East Siberia they penetrate in the form of a broad gulf south-eastwards as far as Irkutsk. Those on the upper Lena, having a somewhat greater altitude and being situated in higher latitudes, are almost wholly unfitted for agriculture. ”

“ After four to twelve years' cultivation the land is allowed to lie fallow for fen years or more. In the Baraba district it is the practice to sow four different grain crops in five to seven years and then to let the land rest ten to twenty-five years. The yield from the principal crops fluctuates greatly ”

“ An alpine region, 100 to 150 m. in breadth, fringes the plateau on the N. W., outside of the ranges just mentioned. This constitutes what is called in East Siberia the taiga: it consists of separate chains of mountains whose peaks rise 4800 to Alpine
region. 6500 ft. above the sea, beyond the upper limits of forest vegetation; while the narrow valleys afford difficult means of communication, their floors being thickly strewn with boulders, or else swampy. The whole is clothed with impenetrable forest. ”

“ The main line of communication is the great Moscow road. It starts from Perm on the Kama, and, crossing the Urals, reaches Ekaterinburg—the centre of mining industry—and Tyumen on the Tura, whence steamers ply via Tobolsk to Tomsk. From Tyumen the road proceeds to Omsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk, sending off from Kolyvan a branch south to Barnaul in the Altai and to Turkestan. From Irkutsk it proceeds to Transbaikalia, Lake Baikal being crossed either by steamer or (when frozen) on sledges, in either case from Listvinichnoe to Misovaya. ”

“ In the plateau there are in reality two terraces—a higher and a lower, both very well defined in Transbaikalia and in Mongolia. The Yablonoi range and its south-western continuation the Kentei are border-ridges of the upper terrace. Both rise very gently above it, but have steep slopes towards the lower terrace, which is occupied by the Nerchinsk steppes in Transbaikalia and by the great desert of Gobi in Mongolia (2000 to 2500 ft. above the sea) . They rise 5000 to 7000 ft. above the sea; the peak of Sokhondo in Transbaikalia (111° E.) reaches nearly 8050 ft. ”

“ Frosts of −13° to −18° F. are not uncommon at Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and Nerchinsk; even in the warmer southern regions of West Siberia and of the Amur the average winter temperature is 2.4° F. and −10.2° respectively; while at Yakutsk and Verkhoyansk the thermometer occasionally falls as low as −75° and −85° F. The minimum temperatures recorded at these two stations are −84° F. and −90° respectively; the minimum at Krasnoyarsk is −67° F., at Irkutsk −51°, at Omsk −56°, and at Tobolsk −58° F. The soil freezes many feet deep over immense areas even in southern Siberia. ”

“ Industrial surveys, having for their object the granting of land to the peasants to the extent of 40 acres per each male head, with 8 additional acres of wood and 8 acres as a reserve, were started many years ago, and after being stopped in 1887 were commenced again in 1898. ”