SIBERIA Vitim. 427 On the Amur forty-five steamers (2800 horse-power) ply for a distance of 2000 miles, from Sryetensk in Transbaikalia to its mouth; while its tributary, the Usuri, permits steamers to approach within 100 miles of Vladivostok. Overland communication is maintained by means of post-stations between all the chief towns-the great highway from Russia to the Pacific passing through Tiumen, Omsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Ir kutsk, Tchita, Blagoveschensk, and Khabarovka, the capitals of all the southern provinces. Communication remains, however, difficult along the Shilka and the Amur, where long distances have to be traversed on horseback, especially when ice is drifting on the river before it is frozen, or when it is about to thaw. Two lines of railway already enter Siberia from the west-the line Perm to Tiumen, not yet connected with the other Russian railways, and the line Ufa to Tchelabinsk, which joins at Samara the railway net of European Russia. The new railway which it is proposed to build across Siberia will follow the above-mentioned becomes an immense swamp. Various small tribes of Manchurian origin (Golds, Mangoons, &c.) lead a half aquatic existence on the banks of the Lower Amur and its tributaries, while the Russian settlements are reduced to a number of villages built on the river for maintaining communication along its banks. It is on the border of this region that the capital of the Amur territory, Khabarovka, stands at the junction of the Amur with the Usuri. The rocky and inhospitable mountains of Sikhota-alin, intersected by equally low and swampy valleys, fill the remaining space towards the sea-coast-the mountains rising over the sea as a stone wall, almost entirely devoid of indentations. From Khabarovka the valley of the Usuri leads southwards to Lake Khangka and to the fertile tracts on the frontier of Corea, which surround the Gulf of Peter the Great. In that gulf Russia has at Vladivostok a splendid harbour, reminding one by its general aspect of the Golden Horn of Constantinople. A railway, intended to connect Khabarovka with Vladivostok, was begun in 1891 at its southern terminus, and was strenuously carried on notwith-highway, and probably will be built in parts, standing the very great difficulties presented by natural obstacles and the scarcity of population. The island of Saghalien and Kamchatka are separately treated. Rivers. The rivers of Siberia are of an immense importance for the life of the country. They all take their origin on the plateau, and, after having pierced the surrounding mountains, enter the plains, where they describe great curves and receive numbers of large tributaries before entering the sea. All of them have moreover this feature in common, that each of them is formed by the junction of a pair of great rivers: such are the Obi and the Irtysh, the Yenisei and the Tunguska, the Lena and the Vitim, the Shilka and the Argun which form the Amur. The three former enter the Arctic Ocean, and repeated efforts have been made of late by both Swedish and English explorers and traders to establish a regular communication between Europe and the mouths of the Siberian rivers, via the Kara Sea, which is now known to be free from ice for a few weeks every year. These efforts have not been lost, as a couple of steamers now reach every year the mouths of either the Obi or the Yenisei, with a cargo of machinery and various manufactured goods. Owing to the great depth of the Siberian rivers, Nordenskiöld was enabled to sail up the Yenisei as far south as 60° N. latitude, while a schooner which was built at Tiumen, on a tributary of the Obi system, could sail to London with a cargo of Siberian wheat. But for the interior communication the rivers are of still greater importance. A line of railway crossing the Urals now connects the Kama, a great tributary of the Volga, with the town Tiumen, and steamers ply regularly from Tiumen to Tomsk, the capital of West Siberia; to Barnaul and Biysk in the Altai Mountains; and to Semipalatinsk in the Kirghiz Steppes. Besides, a canal has recently been dug to connect the Obi with the Yenisei, and, when it has been deepened and some rapids on the Angara have been cleared, goods will be transported from the Urals to Irkutsk, the capital of East Siberia, situated within 40 miles of Lake Baikal. No less than 164 steamers (4000 horsepower) already ply on the Obi and the Irtysh. The Yenisei is also navigated as far as Minusinsk, a small town situated within 300 miles of the Mongolian frontier, in a very fertile region which is often described as the Italy of Siberia on account of its rich vegetation. The Lena is navigated by steamers from Verkholensk (200 miles N. of Irkutsk) to its mouth-large quantities of corn and various goods being shipped to the gold-mines of the Olekma; smaller steamers also navigate the beginning with the spaces which have no watercommunication. Its total length, from the Urals to Vladivostok, must fall little short of 5000 miles, and its cost is estimated at 340 million roubles (£3,400,000). Lakes.-Numberless lakes dot the surface of both plateau and lowlands. The chief of them is Lake Baikal (q.v.); Tchany in the prairies of Tomsk (1300 sq. m., but rapidly desiccating); Gusinoye in Transbaikalia; and Khangka (1690 sq. m.), connected with the Usuri. Climate.-Siberia fully deserves its reputation of being the coldest country of the world. However, with the exception of the Pacific seaboard, it has a much warmer summer than it is generally supposed to have. In the interior of the country one must go as far north as the 60th degree of latitude to find in July an average temperature of less than 60°; while in moderate latitudes July has an average temperature of from 61° to 67°, and 69° on the Middle Amur. The hot summer and a cloudless, bright sky favour vegetation, and one learns to his astonishment that melons are grown in the open air in the steppes of Minusinsk and Irkutsk, or that barley which has been sown in May about Yakutsk (62° 2' N. lat.) ripens by the end of August. But the summer is short, as a rule, and cold weather sets in very rapidly. Night frosts are usual in September, and in November all rivers are frozen; even the Baikal becomes a highway for sledges in January. In November, even in South Siberia, the mercury of the thermometer is occasionally frozen, and in December and January it remains frozen for weeks. The spring begins in April or May, according to the latitude, and is very pleasant, though it still freezes hard at night; but in the second half of May, when all fruit-trees are in full blossom, there is a sudden return of cold which prevents apples and pears from being grown in Siberia. In the far north the cold is really terrible, and Verkhoyansk, although its latitude is only 67° 34' N., is the cold pole of the eastern part of the northern hemisphere. Temperatures as low as 75° and 85° F. have been measured at Verkhoyansk and Yakutsk. Man certainly could not stand such low temperatures, were it not for the dryness of the atmosphere and the absence of wind during the great frosts, which render them more supportable than might be supposed. Not so with the snowstorms, which are frequent by the end of the winter, and are most dangerous to both man and cattle. Population. The population of Siberia is very unequally distributed over the territory. As already mentioned, there are from 20 to 40 inhabitants to the square mile in parts of South Tomsk and Tobolsk, while the deserts of the far north are almost uninhabited. The total population of Siberia, which was less than 1 million at the beginning of the 19th century, has now attained 4,598,500, and it is yearly increased by some 50,000 new immigrants coming from Russia; so that in western Siberia a want of free land available for agriculture is already felt by the new-comers. The Russians in Siberia proper already number more than 3,800,000. They occupy the best parts of the territory in the south, as well as the valleys of the chief rivers. The indigenous population, barbarously exterminated by the Turkish and Mongolian conquerors of the country in the 12th and 13th centuries, and by the Russian conquerors in the 17th and 18th centuries, hardly numbers now 700,000; whole tribes have almost entirely disappeared. The natives belong to various stocks: the Ugrian stock is represented by the Voguls, the Ostiaks, and the Samoyedes on the slopes of the Urals. Various small stems of Turkish origin inhabit the slopes of the Altai and Sayan mountains; they number about 80,000; while the Yakuts, belonging to the same stock, number no less than 200,000. The Mongolian race is represented by the Kalmucks (about 20,000 in the Altai), the Buriats (250,000) around Lake Baikal, and the Tunguses (about 50,000), who lead a nomad existence in the mountains of East Siberia and the Amur region. Nearly 15,000 Manchurians and Chinese continue to stay on Russian territory of the Amur and Usuri; and more than 3000 Coreans are settled around the Gulf of Peter the Great. Finally, in the north-east there are several stems usually described as Hyperboreans and akin to the Eskimos: the Tchuktchis (12,000), the Koryaks (5000), and the Kamchadales (3000). On the Lower Amur we find the Ghilyaks (about 5000), and in the island of Saghalien the Ainos (3000). The condition of the aborigines is altogether precarious; their hunting and grazing grounds are constantly invaded by Russian settlers, and they themselves become an easy prey to the traders, who enslave them by means of loans of food, gunpowder, &c. The numbers of most of them, save the Yakuts and the Buriats, are declining, and some stems will soon totally disappear a fact which is much to be regretted, because their children, when they have received education in Russian schools, generally prove to be useful workers in various branches of science and art. As to the Russians in Siberia, the old stock of early settlers, chiefly of North Russian origin, differ a good deal from the bulk of the Great Russians. Not having known serfdom (only 8000 peasants in West Siberia and 20,000 peasants who belonged to the emperor's mines in East Siberia were serfs in 1861), they are of a more independent spirit; but these descendants of the Novgorodian traders also are much more individualistic and almost devoid of poetical gifts, though very successful as a rule in exact sciences. The chemist Mendeleyeff, the historian Schapoff, the zoologist Polyakoff, and several other men of mark are of Siberian extraction. On the outskirts of the continent the Russians, especially during the first centuries of the conquest, underwent a good deal of mixture with the aboriginesSamoyedes, Ostiaks, Buriats, and Yakuts. A great variety of religions are met with in Siberia. The Russians belong chiefly to the Greek Orthodox faith, or rather to some of the nonconformist sects, the very making of Siberia being due to the emigration of dissenters persecuted by government in their mother-country, as well as to the runaway serfs, and at a later epoch, to the desire of avoiding military service. Most Turkish tribes profess the Mohammedan faith, which is steadily winning new converts. The Buriats profess Buddhism; and most Ugrian and Finnish stems, as well as the Hyperboreans, are Shamanists. Christianity is making but very slow and nominal progress. Exiles.-The rapid increase of population which has taken place in the last quarter of the 19th century is chiefly due to free immigration. As to the exiles, of whom no less than a million have been transported to Siberia since 1840, and who are transported now to the number of 20,000 every year, they have contributed but little to the increase of the settled population. After having been kept for a number of years in prisons in complete idleness, and spent a couple of years on the journey, large parts of which are still made on foot, they are quite unable to become regular agricul turists. They look upon Russia as their mothercountry, and very many of them make an attempt to return to their native villages. They run away, wander on foot through the forests, and, after having been re-arrested and brought back to their settlements, they repeat again and again the attempt on the next opportunity. Others join the ranks of the floating population, and perish in numbers on long pedestrian journeys to and from the gold-mines. It is Agriculture, Industry.-Agriculture and cattlebreeding are the chief occupations. The regions of Tomsk, South Tobolsk, Minusinsk, Irkutsk, and Middle Amur produce more corn than is wanted for the population, and export some. It may be taken that the annual production of all sorts of corn (summer wheat, rye, oats, and barley) in an average year amounts to or exceeds 7,000,000 quarters in West Siberia, and 4,500,000 quarters in East Siberia. Cattle-breeding is extensively carried on, especially in the steppes of the east. roughly estimated that there are about 2,000,000 horses, 1,500,000 head of horned cattle, 3,000,000 sheep, and 100,000 reindeer in West Siberia, and about 850,000 horses, 1,100,000 horned cattle, 1,120,000 sheep, and 50,000 reindeer in East Siberia. Hunting continues to be profitable in some parts of the territory, notwithstanding the reckless extermination of wild animals and burning of forests which have been going on for three hundred years. Sables, Arctic foxes, and gray foxes become rare; so that squirrels, common foxes, bears, deer, and antelopes, as also some ermines and a few beavers in the north-east, are the chief object of the hunter. Even the sables which were so numerous on the Amur when the Russians first occupied it are rapidly being exterminated. Fishing is extensively carried on on Lake Baikal, the Amur, the Obi, and other rivers. Industry is in its childhood. With the exception of the Tiumen region, where some carpets are woven in the peasants' houses, and a few domestic trades are resorted to in the winter, the Russians in Siberia do not carry on the domestic industries so characteristic of middle Russia. In Transbaikalia the want of the simplest technical knowledge is simply astonishing. Therefore, although Siberia has all the raw produce that may be wanted for the development of a prosperous industrial activity, the want of technical skill prevents the growth of industries. It must also be said that the prospects of a sudden enrichment in the lottery of gold-mining diverts the attention of the population and the few capitalists from the surer industrial pursuits, and that the first steps in that direction are beset with difficulties in a country devoid of railways, domestic industries, and technical schools. Yet the influence of the mining and industrial centres of the Urals is already felt in West Siberia. Tiumen has its establishments in which steamers provided with all modern fittings are built with full success. TYPES OF THE TCHUKTCHIS OF SIBERIA (AFTER PHOTOGRAPHS). 1. ROTSCHITLEN; FACE AND PROFILE. 2. YOUNG MAN OF IRGUNNUK. 3. MAN FROM PITLEKAI. 4. FACE AND PROFILE OF A WOMAN OF PITLEKAI. 5. AN OLD MAN OF IRGUNNUK. 6. MAN OF YINRETLIN. 7. REINDEER-TCHUKTCHI. 8. YOUNG MAN OF VANKAREMA. 9. YOUNG MAN OF IRGUN SIBERIA Although Siberia is very rich in all kinds of ores, the same causes prevent the development of rational mining, which still remains chiefly limited to gold-washing, very primitive in most cases, and only here and there supplied with modern machinery. The production of gold is considerable. In the period 1860–90 no less than from 404 to 584 cwt. of gold annually were obtained in East Siberia, and 48 cwt. in West Siberia, exclusive of Perm. In 1888 the figures of extraction of gold were: Tomsk, 43 cwt.; Yeniseisk and Irkutsk, 98; Transbaikalia, 56; Yakutsk, 149; Amur, 125. Silver is extracted in the Altai to the amount of from 130 to 300 cwt. every year; lead, 3250 cwt. in the Altai, and 232 cwt. in Nertchinsk; copper, 5800 to 7740 cwt. in Altai; iron, 97,000 to 130,000 cwt., to which the considerable production of the ironworks of the eastern slope of the Urals ought to be added. Education still stands at a very low level, the total numbers of pupils in schools throughout Siberia hardly exceeding 60,000 boys and girls. A university has been opened at Tomsk (1888), after much opposition on behalf of the government, but it has only two faculties, medical and juridical. In the chief towns of each province there are gymnasia in which some education on classical lines is given, but primary and technical education is in great neglect. The technical society of Irkutsk has, however, made some progress in the latter direction. The geographical societies at Omsk and at Irkutsk are known for their scientific publications. Natural science and anthropological museums have been opened of late by some exiles, and those of Irkutsk, Minusinsk, and Yeniseisk contain valuable collections. History. The earliest history of Siberia is still imperfectly known, and the numberless tumuli scattered over its surface only begin to be scientifically explored. The earliest inhabitants seem to have belonged to a stock different from the Ural-Altaians, and are described by Radloff as Yeniseians. They were followed by the UgroSamoyedes, whose bronze ornaments buried in the tumuli testify to a high pitch of artistic skill. They were subdued in the 11th century by Turkish invaders, who themselves were conquered, two centuries later, by the Mongols. The latter swept away the previous civilisation. The Russians, who vaguely knew Siberia since the 11th century through the Novgorodian merchants, began the conquest of the territory in 1580, when a band of Cossack robbers under Yermak subdued the Tartars on the Tobol River. New and new bands of Cossacks, traders, and hunters, supported by the Moscow government and followed by dissenters flying from religious persecution and peasants escaping from serfdom, poured into Siberia during the next two centuries. The Cossacks took possession of the country, and reached the coasts of the Sea of Okhotsk within the first eighty years after Yermak's expedition. In 1643-50 they also took possession of the Amur, but were compelled by the Chinese to abandon their settlements and forts (1689). The estuary of the Amur was discovered in 1849, and a military post established at the mouth of the river in 1851.. The left bank of the Amur and the right bank of the Usuri were annexed in 1853-57; a chain of villages was built along both rivers, and the 'accomplished fact' was recognised by China in 1857 and 1860. The Behring Strait was discovered in 1648 by the Cossack Dejneff, who sailed that year around the north-eastern extremity of Asia; but the fact remained unknown, and the scientific discovery of the passage between Asia and America belongs to Beliring. The first circumnavigation of Asia was, however, not accomplished till 1878-79, when Nordenskiöld, on board the Vega, sailed through the Arctic Ocean, wintered on the Siberian coast, entered next spring the Behring Strait, and returned to Sweden via the Japanese and Chinese Seas, the Indian Ocean, and the Suez Canal. The Géographie Universelle of Élisée Reclus, vol. vi. (English trans. by Professor Keane), is the best source of general information in English. See also Ravenstein's Russians on the Amur (1861); Seebohm's Siberia in Asia (1882); Lansdell's Through Siberia (1882); Kennan's Tent Life in Siberia (New York, 1870), and Siberia and the Exile System (1891); Radloff's Aus Sibirien (1884), and other works; and H. de Windt, Siberia as It is (1891). Of the numberless Russian works, see the relevant volume of the work called 'Picturesque Russia,' by various writers, and Yadrintseff on 'Siberia as a Colony' (German trans. 1886). Sibi, a pass, town, and district, in the occupation of Britain, on the frontier of Afghanistan and Beluchistan. The town, which has a station on the Sind and Pishin Valley Railway, is the resi dence of the British political agent. The inhabitants of the district, mostly Pathans and Beluchis, number about 14,000. Sibyl, the name given in antiquity to certain inspired prophetesses, whether Apollo's mistresses or daughters, or merely his priestesses. The name is explained by Lactantius on authority of Varro as made up of the Doric sios = theos and_byle : boule; Maas tries to connect it with the Eastern Saba or Saba; Bang makes bold to connect it with the Volva and Voluspá of the Old Norse Sagas. Their number is differently given; some writersElian and Pausanias, for example-mention only four, the Erythræan, the Samian, the Egyptian, and the Sardian; Aristophanes and Plato use the word in the singular number only; but in general ten are reckoned, as by Varro-the Babylonian, the Libyan, the Delphian, the Cimmerian, the Erythræan, the Samian, the Cumaan, the Trojan or Hellespontine, the Phrygian, and the Tiburtine. Of these by far the most celebrated is the Cumaan, identified by Aristotle with the Erythræan, and personally known by the names of Herophile, Demo, Phemonoë, Deiphobe, Demophile, and Amalthea. She figures prominently in the 6th book of Virgil's Eneid, as the conductor of the poet into the realm of the shades. Livy records the legend that she came from the east, appeared before King Tarquin, and offered him nine books for sale. The price demanded appeared so exorbitant that the king refused to purchase them. She then went away, destroyed three, and returning, asked as much for the remaining six as for the nine. This was again refused, whereupon she destroyed other three, and once more offered to sell him the remainder, but still at the same price asked at first. Tarquin was struck by her pertinacity, and bought the books, which were found to contain oracular advices regarding the religion and policy of the Romans. They were preserved in a subterranean chamber of the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline, and were originally entrusted to two officials (duumviri sacrorum), appointed by the senate, who alone had the right to inspect them. The number of keepers was afterwards increased to ten (decemviri), and finally by Sulla to fifteen (quindecemviri). In the year 83 B.C., the temple of Jupiter having been consumed by fire, the original Sibylline books or leaves were destroyed, whereupon a special embassy was despatched by the senate to all the cities of Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor, to collect such as were current in these regions. The new collection, of about a thousand lines, was deposited in the rebuilt temple of Jupiter, but was transferred in 12 B.C. by Augustus as pontifex to the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, where it remained till it was publicly burned by Stilicho, between |