selves into the lake, the
largest of which is the Selenga. Although the Angara is five times as
large as the Yenisei, it is called a tributary of the latter. The
Yenisei rises in Chinese territory, and, running northwards right
through Siberia, falls into the Arctic Ocean. It receives a large number
of affluents, most of them from the east. Its banks are clothed with
forest, and from Minusinsk downwards the river is navigable.

The Lena, the great river which passes through eastern Siberia
north-east of Baikal, is not much smaller than the Yenisei. There stands
the town of Yakutsk, where the temperature falls in winter down to-80 deg.,
and rises in summer to 95 deg. North of Yakutsk, on the river Yana, lies
Verkhoiansk, the coldest place in the world, the centre of low
temperature or pole of cold.

In area Siberia is larger than the whole of Europe, but the population
in this immense country is no greater than that of Greater London,
_i.e._ about seven millions. Of these 60 per cent are Russians, 20 per
cent Kirghizes, and the remainder is made up of Buriats, Yakuts,
Tunguses, Manchus, Samoyeds, Ostiaks, Tatars, Chukchis, etc. No small
part of the Russian population consists of convicts transported to
Siberia, whose hard lot is to work under strict supervision in the gold
mines. Their number is estimated at 150,000. Before the railway was made
they had to travel tremendous distances on foot. They marched ten miles
a day in rain and sunshine, storm and snow, through the terribly cold
and gloomy Siberia. Before and behind them rode Cossacks, who would not
let them rest as they dragged their chains through the mud and mire of
the road. Frequently women and children followed of their own free will
to share their husbands' and fathers' fate during their forced labour in
the mines. Now there is a great improvement. The labour, indeed, is just
as hard, but the journey out is less trying. The unfortunate people are
now forwarded in special prison vans with gratings for windows. They are
like travelling cells, and can often be seen on side tracks at a
station.

In the neighbourhood of the Lena River dwell Yakuts of the Turkish-Tatar
race. They number only 230,000 men, are nominally Christians, and pursue
agriculture and trade. East of the Yenisei are the Tunguses, a small
people divided into "settled," "horse," "reindeer," and "dog" Tunguses,
according to the domestic animal of most importance to their mode of
life. In wester