SIBERIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13967, 28 September 1918, Page 2 (Supplement)

SIBERIA.

RIOH AND FERTILE COUNTRY.

A LAND OF EXTREMES.

Siberia is the cynosure of all eyes interested in Russia and its destiny, for out there events may happen on which will depend the doom or the regeneration of the Russian empire and the end of the world struggle. Siberia, roughly speaking, covers an area of about 4,784,034 square miles, and is nearly forty times as large as Great Britain and Ireland. It is a land of vast rivers, and they form in many instances the only means of communication in the interior. They are generally very deep rivers; the Yenisei, Obi, Trtysh, Lena, Amur and the Argun are the most important, and on their waters great fleets of steamers come and go and link up the old posting stations with the great railways, such as the Trans-Siberian, TransBaikal, the Chinese Eastern Railway and the Usuri Railway. Much of the travelling to and from places which the railways still do not reach is done by a long train of packhorses with baggage run on the same lines as the caravan routes in Persia and the desert. The scenery along the ancient posting roads iB magmfioient, through deep valleys, between high mountains, then up ever as-

' • . CAVALRY OH" THE WESTERN FRONT: THE SCOTS GREYS RESTING ON A ROADSIDE. Owing to shell-holes and other obstacles, cavalry, so far, has not played a very prominent part in the war, but it is expected that in the near future the mounted men will lave the great chance they u» looking for

ENEMY EVIDENCE OP SHE BLOCKING OP ZEUBRTJGGE: A CAPTURED PHOTOGRAPH, TAKEN BY A GERMAxf AIRMAN. This remarkably interesting photograph shows how two of the British block-ships attained their objective at Zeebrugge, being blown up and sunk at the mouth of the canal. Tho photograph, taken by a German airman, came into the possession of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Eric Geddes, who presented it to Lord Beaverbrook, Minister of Information. . —Official Photos, supplied by Kodak, Ltd.

cending steep mountains, then down again into forest-covered valleys, over rivers, wading through marshes into which the horses sink up to their bellies, then through dense vegetation where the air is full of humming insects over the steppes where great herds of horses and cattle wander about as they like. The Tartar keepers round them up occasionally. There are wonderful old burial mounds by the post roads in Northern Mongolia and the Mimusinsk and Achinsk Steppes. They are huge upright slabs of red sandstone 40 feet on a side and six feet high. Numbers of skeletons have been found in these burial chambers of these prehistoric graveyards and quaint bronze and copper ornaments have been discovered in them also, dating back to 1000 or perhaps 2000 years B.C. There are inland seas and many lakes, the largest of which is Lake Baikal, which means " rich lake." It is the deepest lake in the world, over 6500 feet in places, and its water are extraordinarily clear and extremely cold; it abounds with fish. Siberia, like all Russia, is a land of extremes, the coldest place in the world in winter and the air very dry, but its short summer is very hot. Melons are grown in the open on the steppes of Mumusinsk and Irkutsk, and in some districts barley sown in May is ripe by the end of August. In Northern Siberia most of the land is covered with forests which gradually disappear into waste land, frozen for the greater part of the year and marshy in summer. In parts an enormous quantity of corn (summer wheat, rye, oats and barley) is raised, while cattle and horsebreeding and sheep-rearing are other very profitable occupations. Hunting wild animals for their valuable fun is another j larg* train