y well be compared in extent, climate,
fertility, and the possibility of supporting a dense population,
with America north of 40 deg. N.L. Like America, Siberia is
occupied in the north by woodless plains. South of this region,
where only the hunter, the fisher, and the reindeer nomad can find a
scanty livelihood, there lies a widely extended forest territory,
difficult of cultivation, and in its natural conditions, perhaps,
somewhat resembling Sweden and Finland north of 60 deg. or 61 deg.
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 frontier 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.

[Illustration: Map of the River System of Siberia. ]

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.[209] As the map of the river system of Siberia, which
accompanies this work, shows, but a small part of these enormous
territories lies north of the Arctic Circle, and only very
inconsiderable portions of it are occupied by woodless _tundra_,
which is explained by the fact that the greater part of the
coast-land bordering on the Arctic Ocean is drained by small rivers
of its own, and therefore cannot be considered to belong to the
river territories now in question. If we draw the northern boundary
of the land that may be cultivated with advantage at 60 deg. N.L.,
there remains a cultivable area of 90,000 geographical square miles.
Perhaps