Wheat is indigenous to Siberia.
Here is the largest grazing region in existence. Through this the
train rolls on hour after hour, as in European Russia it goes on and
on through interminable birch forests. Countless herds of animals in
superb condition are everywhere seen roaming over these magnificent
flowering Steppes, over which the Muscovite Eagle proudly floats.

Parts of the great railway, however, traverse regions other than
these. To make the reader understand the general characteristics
of Siberia and the importance of the railway in the light of these
characteristics, a few words must be said about the three great
zones which mainly make up the country. The first is the _tundra_,
the vast region which stretches through the northern sub-arctic
latitudes. This desolate belt is not less than 5,000 miles in extent.
In breadth it varies from 200 to 500 miles. In winter the _tundra_
is, of course, one vast frozen sheet. In the brief summer it is
swampy, steaming, and swarming with mosquitoes. Treeless and sterile,
the _tundra_ is the home of strange uncouth tribes, but it is a
valuable training ground for hardy hunters. To the minds of most
people the _tundra_ is Siberia. This mischievous fallacy is difficult
to dispel. In a few years the Siberian railway will have completely
dissipated it. Much more valuable is the far wider zone called
the _taiga_, the most wonderful belt of forest on the surface of
the earth. I can testify to the profound impression of mingled
mystery and delight produced on the mind by riding a thousand miles
through Russian forests as they still exist in European Russia,
where myriads of square miles in the north and centre of the land
are covered by birch, spruce, larch, pine, and oak plantations.
Where do these forests begin and where do they have an end? That
is the traveller's thought. He finds that they thicken and broaden,
and deepen as they sweep in their majestic gloom across the Urals,
and make up for thousands of miles the grand Siberian arboreal belt.
In this _taiga_ the Tsar possesses wealth beyond all computation;
and the railway will put it actually at his disposal. The third
zone, the most valuable of all, is that which mainly constitutes
Southern Siberia. It is the region of the Steppes, that endless
natural garden which again makes Siberia an incomparable land.
Sheeted with flowers, variegated by woodlands, it holds in its lap
ranges of mountains, all running with fairly unifo