SIBERIA . This name (Russ. Sibir) in the 16th See also:

• CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

On the margins of the plateau there are several gaps or indentations, which can best be likened to gigantic trenches, like railway cuttings, as with an insensible gradient they climb to a higher level. These trenches have for successive See also:

• GEOLOGICAL

The Tarbagatai Mountains, on the See also:

• BORDERS, THE

A. See also:

• KROPOTKIN, PETER ALEXEIVICH, PRINCE (1842- )

W., outside of the ranges just mentioned. This constitutes what is called- in East Siberia the taiga: it consists of Alpine See also:

• SEPARATE

In the region between Viluisk (on the Vilui) and Yeniseisk a broad belt of alpine tracts, reaching their greatest See also:

• ELEVATION

7The deep fissure occupied by Lake Baikal would thus appear to consist of two longitudinal valleys connected together by the passage between Olkhon and Svyatoi Nos. accompany the eastern edge of the plateau. The eastern Gobi, the occasionally fertile and occasionally sandy plains between the Nonni and the Sungari, and the See also:

• RICH, BARNABE (c. 1540-1617)
• RICH, CLAUDIUS JAMES (1787-1821)
• RICH, JOHN (1692-1761)
• RICH, PENELOPE, LADY (c. 1562–1607)
• RICH, RICHARD, 1ST BARON RICH (1490?-1567)

On the Pacific slope See also:

• EXTINCT

Altogether West Siberia yields annually 130,000 oz. of gold. The gold-bearing gravels of East Siberia, especially those of the Lena and the Amur, are relatively more prolific than those of West Siberia. The See also:

• TOTAL

The orography sketched above explains the great development of the river-systems of Siberia and the uniformity of their course. Rivers. The three principal rivers—the Ob, the Yenisei, and the Lena—take their rise on the high plateau or in the alpine regions fringing it, and, after descending from the plateau and piercing the alpine regions, flow for many hundreds of miles across the high plains and lowlands before they reach the Arctic Ocean. The three rivers of north-eastern Siberia—the Yana, lndigirka and Kolyma—have the same general character, their courses being, however, much shorter, as in these latitudes the plateau approachesnearer to the Arctic Ocean. The Amur, the upper tributaries of which rise on the eastern border-range of the high plateau, is similar. The Shilka and the Argun, which form it, flow first towards the north-east along the windings of the lower terrace of the great plateau; from this the Amur descends, cutting through the Great Khingan and flowing down the terraces of the eastern versant towards the Pacific. A noteworthy feature of the principal Siberian rivers is that each is formed by the confluence of a pair of rivers. Examples are the Ob and the Irtysh, the Yenisei and the Angara (itself a See also:

• DOUBLE
• DOUBLE (from the Mid. Eng. duble, the form which gives the present pronunciation, through the Old Er. duble, from Lat. duplus, twice as much)

Owing to the fact that the great plateau separates the Lena from the Amur, no easy water communication can be established between the latter and the other Siberian rivers. The tributaries of the Amur (the Shilka with its affluent the Ingoda) become navigable only on the lower terrace of the plateau. But the See also:

• TRENCH, RICHARD CHENEVIX (1807-1886)

In the basin of the Amur are Lake Hanka (1700 sq. m.), connected with the Usuri; Lakes Kada and Kidzi, by which the lower Amur once flowed to the Pacific; and very many smaller ones on the See also:

• LEFT

2 See Yadrintsev, in Izvestia of the Russian Geogr. Soc, (1886, No. 1, with maps). the north-east extremity of Siberia, and Bering Sea between the See also:

• LAND

Although attaining altitudes of 6000 to io,000 ft., the mountain peaks of East Siberia do not reach the See also:

• SNOW (in O. Eng. sndw; a common Indo-European word; cf. in Teutonic languages, Ger. Schnee, Du. sneeuw; in Slavonic snieg', Lith. snegas; Gr. vi4a, Lat. nix, nivis, whence the Romanic forms, Ital. neve, Fr. neige, &c.; Ir. and Gael. sneachd; the original

More dreaded than the frosts are the terrible burans or snowstorms, which occur in See also:

• EARLY
• EARLY, JUBAL ANDERSON (1816-1894)

That of 14 F., which passes in Europe through See also:

• ULEABORG (Finnish, Oulu)

In the See also:

• HILL
• HILL (0. Eng. hyll; cf. Low Ger. hull, Mid. Dutch hul, allied to Lat. celsus, high, collis, hill, &c.)
• HILL, A
• HILL, AARON (1685-175o)
• HILL, AMBROSE POWELL
• HILL, DANIEL HARVEY (1821-1889)
• HILL, DAVID BENNETT (1843–1910)
• HILL, GEORGE BIRKBECK NORMAN (1835-1903)
• HILL, JAMES J
• HILL, JOHN (c. 1716-1775)
• HILL, MATTHEW DAVENPORT (1792-1872)
• HILL, OCTAVIA (1838– )
• HILL, ROWLAND (1744–1833)
• HILL, SIR ROWLAND (1795-1879)

The See also:

• OAK (O. Eng., (lc)

But even in these districts the botanist and the geographer can easily distinguish between the chern or thick forest of the Altai and the taiga of East Siberia. The lower plateau exhibits, of course, new characteristics. Its open spaces are lovely prairies, on which the Daurian flora flourishes in full beauty. In spring the traveller crosses a sea of grass above which the See also:

• FLOWERS, ARTIFICIAL

The Amur region shares the characteristics of the north Chinese fauna. On the whole, we may say that the arctic and boreal faunas of Europe extend over Siberia, with a few additional species in the Ural and Baraba region—a number of new species also appearing in East Siberia, some spreading along the high plateau and others along the lower plateau from the steppes of the Gobi. The arctic fauna is very poor. According to Nordenskjold' it numbers only twenty-nine species of mammals, of which seven are marine and seventeen or eighteen may be safely considered as living beyond the forest limit. Of these, again, four are characteristic of the land of the Chukchis. The See also:

• REINDEER

Iakttagelser., vol. ii. Spermophilus dauricus, the See also:

• JERBOA

Schrenck in the north of the Japanese Sea led to the See also:

• DISCOVERY