Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1888-09-18
sIBERIA.s CLIMATE.
- comparativeiy Unknown countrv VIAL.
L. by No Means an Arctic ws.,~

comparatively Unknown countrv yv,,,.s
~" Means an Arctic Waste,
IN hardly necessary to say that n
country which has an area Of Ave
haii million square miles. and which
eNesnos In latitude as far as from the
southern extremity Of Greenland To the
i7iand OF Cuba, must present great d.
Versities OF climate, Topography and
vegetation, and can not be eyervwhoro
barren arctic waste. A mere glance
al map Is sufficient to show that a
considerable part OF Western Siher;a
iics farther south than Nice, Venice
of Mlian' and that the suburban bound.
AIRY OF the Siberian province OF Semir-
echinsk Is nearer the equator than Ma
pies. In country which thus stretches
from the latitude of Italy to the lati-
tude OF Central Greenland one would
naturally expect to find, and as a mat
Ter OF TACT one does find. many varie-
Ties OF Climate and scenery. In SONG
parts OF the province of Yakutsk the
mean temperature Of the month of Jam
uary Is more than so degrees below
zero, Fahrenheit, while in the province
OF oemipalatinsk the mean temperature
OF the month Of July is " degrees
above; and such maximum tempera-
lures as 20 and 100 degrees In the shade
are comparatively common. On the
Iaimyr peninsula, east OF the Gulf OF
I'd, the permanently frozen ground
thaws out In summer to a depth Of only
lew Inches, and supports but a scanty
vegetation OF berry bushes and moss,
whiie In the southern part of Western
siberia watermelons and cantalo,,pes
are profitable crop, tobacco Is grown
upon thousands Of plantations, and the
peasants harvest annually more than
5O,OOO.0OO bushels of grain. The fact
which 1 desire especially to impress
upon the mind of the reader is that ST.
perla Is not everywhere uniform and ho-
mogeneous. The northern part OF the
country differs from the southern part
quite as much as the Hudson Bay terri
tory differs from Kentucky; and it is as
great mistake to attribute the cold
and barrenness of the Lena delta to the
whole of Siberia as it would be to at
tribute the cold and barrenness of King
William Land to the whole of North
America.
10 the traveller who crosses the
Urals for the first time in June nothing
Is more surprising than the fervent
neat OF Siberian sunshine and the ex-
traordinary beauty and profusion OF
Siberian flowers. Although we had
been partly prepared by our voyage up
the Kama for the experience which
awaited us on the other side Of the
mountains, we were fairly astonished
upon the threshold of Western Siberia
by the scenery, the weather and the
fora. In the fertile, blossoming coun-
try presented to US as we rode swiftly
eastward into the province of Tobolsk.
there was absolutely nothing even re-
motely to suggest an arctic region. II
we had been blindfolded and trans
ported to it suddenly in the middle of
sunny afternoon, we could never have
guessed to what part of the world we
had been taken. The sky was as clear
and blue and the air as soft as the sky
and air of California; the trees were
all in full leaf; birds were singing over
the flowery meadows and in the clumps
of birches by the roadside; there were
a drowsy hum of bees and faint fra
GRANGE of flowers and verdure in the
air; and the sunshine was as warm and
bright as that of June afternoon in
the most favored part of the temperate
zone.-George Keranan, in Century.