tance from the rivers it is for the most part
an unknown land, where the European seldom or never sets his foot,
and where only the native nomad or hunter wanders about. These
forests, however, are by no means so rich in game as might be
expected, perhaps because the mosquitoes in summer are unendurable
by warm-blooded animals.

The main population in the forest belt consists of native nomad or
hunting tribes, of which Samoyeds, Ostyaks, Tunguses, and Yakuts are
the most numerous. Only along the rivers do we find Russian villages
and peasant settlements, placed there for trading with the natives,
for fishing, and at some places for washing gold. Not till we come
to the middle of the country is the Russian population more
numerous, here it spreads out in a broad belt over the whole of the
immense expanse between the Ural and the Angara.

[Illustration: SIBERIAN RIVER BOAT. Used by the Norwegian traveller
Chr. Hansteen on the river Angara. ]

In the farthest north the Russian dwelling-places consist of single
cabins built of logs or planks from broken-up lighters,[213] and
having flat, turf-covered roofs. Such carvings and ornaments as are
commonly found on the houses of the well-to-do Russian peasant, and
whose artistic outlines indicate that the inhabitants have had time
to think of something else than the satisfaction of the wants of the
moment, are here completely wanting; but further south the villages
are larger, and the houses finer, with raised roofs and high gables
richly ornamented with wood-carvings. A church, painted in bright
colours, generally shows that one of the inhabitants of the village
has become rich enough to be at the expense of this ornament to his
native place. The whole indicates a degree of prosperity, and the
interiors of the houses, if we except the cockroaches, which swarm
everywhere, are very clean. The walls are ornamented with numerous,
if not very artistic, photographs and lithographs. Sacred pictures,
richly ornamented, are placed in a corner, and before them hang
several small oil-lamps, or small wax-lights, which are lighted on
festive occasions. The sleeping place is formed of a bedstead near
the roof, so large that it occupies a half or a third of the room,
and at such a height from the floor that one can stand upright under
it. There a tropical heat commonly prevails, the occupant of the bed
accordingly enjoying an almost constant sweat-bath, which does not
prevent him from goin