Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/772

Rh 726 YAKUTSK transported in winter by means of reindeer to their desti nation. A line drawn south-west and north-east, from the mouth of the Vitim towards that of the Aldan, separates the mountain tracts from the elevated plains (from 1500 to 2000 feet) which fringe the highlands all the way from the upper Lena to Verkhne-Kofymsk, and probably to the mouth of the Kolyma. Immense and sometimes marshy meadows extend over those plains in the south-west ; farther north mosses and lichens are the prevalent vegetation. The surface is much furrowed by rivers and diversified by several mountain -chains (Ver khoyansk, Tas-karyktakh, Kotymsk, and Atazeya). Little is known as to the real character of these mountains, although they are figured on maps as isolated ridges shoot ing north-west from the highlands, between the chief rivers which flow into the Arctic Ocean. Beyond the elevated plains vast tundras, covered with mosses and lichens, stretch to the shores of the ice-bound ocean ; only a few trees succeed in the struggle for a miserable existence, though some isolated groups penetrate farther north along the courses of the Lena, the Indighirka, and the Kotyma, almost reaching in the first-named valley the seventy-second degree of north latitude. Northern The Arctic coast is indented by several bays Borkhaya coast. an( j Yana to the east of the wide Lena delta, and Omul- yakh, Kotyma, and Tchaunskaya still farther to the east. Islands have been explored as far as 78 N. lat. These fall into three groups, the Lyakhovskiye, the Anjou or New Siberian, and the De Long Islands. The Medvyezhie (Bear) Islands off the Kolyma and the two Ayun Islands in Tchaunskaya Bay are merely littoral. WrangePs Land seems to be the outer island of a great and as yet unknown archipelago. The entire coast of Yakutsk is full of memorials of the courageous explorations made in 1735-41 by Minin, Lapteff, and Prontchischeff in small boats, with out any of the modern appliances for Arctic explorations, and Tchaunskaya Bay recalls the loss of Shalauroff s ex pedition. The prospects of regular navigation recently raised by Nordenskj old s bold circumnavigation of Asia seem unlikely to be fully realized, the ice apparently having never again been in so favourable a condition as in 1878- 79. Every year, however, a narrow passage close by the coast is left almost free of ice, enabling a ship or two to reach the estuary of the Yenisei, or even the delta of the Lena. Rivers. The great artery of Yakutsk, the Lena, rises on the western slope of the Baikal Mountains, its sources being separated only by a narrow ridge from the great Siberian lake. It soon issues from the mountain valleys, and flows over the elevated plains, where it has carved a deep channel between horizontal layers of Old Red Sand stone and further on of contorted beds of limestone. As far as Yakutsk it maintains its north-eastern direction, with but one great bend in 60 N. lat. and several .small windings in its upper course. At Katchug a lading-place 180 miles north-east from Irkutsk it is still shallow, but soon becomes a mighty stream of much beauty, which is increased by the high crags and mountains amidst which it has dug its channel. Though thus picturesque, its valley can hardly be called hospitable : the narrow level stretches along the base of the mountains are often marshy, while the raw and wet climate renders agriculture most difficult ; the villages are poverty- stricken, and in most of them goitre is endemic. About 60 N. lat. the Lena receives from the right its first great tributary, the Yitim (1400 miles in length), which after a very sinuous course leaves the great plateau below Lake Oron, by a narrow gorge which has not yet been visited by any geographer. It is navigable by steamers in its lower course. The next large tributary of the Lena is the Olekma (about 800 miles), which also rises on the plateau and crosses it from south to north ; it is navigable only in the very lowest part of its course ; higher up, its valley, which offers the greatest difficulties for the traveller, has been utilized as a route only by the Cossack conquerors of Siberia and by one of the mem bers of the Siberian expedition. The next important tributary, also from the right, is the Aldan (nearly 1300 miles), which first flows parallel to the Lena and then turns north-westwards to join it, itself receiving on the left a large tributary, the Amga. it is navigated from Ust-Maya. The only large tributary of the Lena on the left is the Yilui (about 1300 miles), which has an immense drainage-area on the lower plains, and since 1887 has been navi gated by a steamer. At Yakutsk the Lena becomes a magnificent stream of more than 4 miles in width, with numerous islands, and this character it maintains for the next 1200 miles of its course, sometimes reaching a width of 17 miles and a depth of 7 to 8 fathoms. It enters the Arctic Ocean by a wide delta, occupying more than 250 miles of the coast-line ; here the river divides into seven or eight principal branches, the chief of which vary from 35 to 65 miles in length, the largest being more than 6 miles broad. The bar, however, has only 8 feet of water, and the Swedish steamer &quot;Lena&quot; had great difficulty in entering from the sea. The lower course of the river is subject to terrible inundations when the ice breaks up on its upper part, whilst at the same time the higher reaches of its lower course are still covered with ice several feet in thickness. Large portions of the banks are then torn away by the enormous masses of ice. The Olenek (1200 miles), which enters the Arctic Ocean to the west of the Lena, is also a considerable river; the Yana (1000 miles), Indighirka (950), and Kotyma (1000) to the east all rise in the mountain region between 61 and 62 N. lat. and flow north and north-east into the Arctic Ocean. The granites, granitic syenites, and gneisses of the high plateau Geol&amp;lt; are surrounded by a variety of crystalline slates, Huronian and and Laurentian ; and vast layers of Silurian and Devonian limestones mine i. and sandstones extend over large areas. Farther north the Carbon iferous, Chalk, and Jurassic formations are spread over a wide region, and the whole is covered with layers of Glacial deposits in the highlands and of post-Glacial elsewhere. The mineral wealth of Yakutsk is very great; but gold (262,200 oz. in 1884) and salt (obtained from springs to the amount of about 6000 cwts. annually) only are worked. Coal has been recently discovered on the Yilui close by its mouth, as also on the lower Lena. Though there are spots in the North- American archipelago and Clim; in northern Greenland where the cold is as intense as at Yakutsk, no region can be named which has such extremes of cold and heat or winter temperatures so low, so long continued, or spread over so immense an area. Yerkhoyansk on the Yana (67 34 N. lat. and 134 20 E. long.) is, in respect of cold, the pole of the Old World ; nowhere, even in Siberia, do we find such low winter tem peratures : from whatever quarter the wind may blow it cannot fail to bring a warmer temperature to Yerkhoyansk. Frosts of 76 Fahr. have been observed there, and the average temperature of the three winter months is - 53 - l ; even that of March is but little above the freezing-point of mercury ( - 37 9). Neither Ust- Yansk (70 55 N. lat., but close to the sea ooast), nor Yakutsk, nor even the polar station of Sagastyr at the mouth of the Lena (73 23 N. lat.), has a winter so cold and so protracted. And yet at Sagastyr temperatures of 63 6 were measured in February 1883, and the average temperature of that month was only - 43 0- 6. At Yakutsk the average temperature of the winter is 40 0- 2, and the soil is frozen to a depth of 600 feet (Middendorff). Even at a depth of 382 feet the temperature of the soil is 26 0- 4 Fahr. For further particulars, see SIBERIA, vol. xxii. p. 6. The Lena, both at Kirensk and at Yakutsk, is free from ice for only 161 days in the year, the Yana at Ust-Yansk for 105. While at Yakutsk only 145 days and at Verkhoyansk only 73 have no snow ; the interval between the latest frosts of one season and the earliest frosts of the next is barely 37 days, and even less in the north. In spite of the rigours of its climate, the province of Yakutsk Popu] had 243,450 inhabitants in 1883, and the population is supposed tiou. to be increasing notwithstanding the infectious diseases which some times sweep away whole villages. The Russians constitute but a trifling element in the population ; and their villages, numbering scarcely twenty, are chiefly peopled by exiled Nonconformists, be longing to the sects reputed &quot;dangerous.&quot; In 1879 there were 5100 exiles living in the towns or settled in the Yakut encamp ments, 5300 peasants (also formerly exiles), 1890 military, and 4100 artisans, merchants, and officials. The remainder were chiefly Yakuts (211,900), and partly Tunguses (10,400), with a few Yuka- ghirs, Lamuts, and Tchuktchis. The Yakuts belong to the Turkish stem (see vol. xxiii. p. 661), and speak a dialect of Turkish, with an admixture of Mongolian words. They call themselves Sokha (pi. Sokhalar), their present name having been borrowed by the Russians from the Tunguses, who call them Ycko or Yrkot. Most probably they formerly inhabited southern Siberia, and especially the upper Yenisei, where a Tartar stem calling itself Sakha still remains in Minusinsk. They are middle-sized, have dark and rather narrow eyes, a broad flat nose, thick black hair, and almost no beard. On the whole they are healthy and reach an advanced age, are very laborious and enterprising, and display in schools much more intelli gence than the Tunguses or Buriats. Their implements show a great degree of .skill and some artistic taste. They live in log yurtas with small windows, into which plates of ice or pieces of skin are inserted instead of glass. A large fire is kept continually burning in the middle of the yurta, which always has a wooden chimney. The yurtas are usually at some distance from one another, but at the same time are grouped into villages or naslcgs. During summer