The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-08-09
The Climate of Siberia.

From George Kennan's account of
| the ''Plains and Prisons of Western ST.
| IBERIA, in the CeRt7trV. we quote the
| following: 1T is hardly necessary to
gay that a country which has an area
of five and half million square miles,
and which extends in latitude as far
rs from the southern extremity of
| Greenland to the island of Cuba, must
pEsssRt great diyersities of climate, to-
ssgrsShy. and vegetation, and cannot
DO everywhere a barren arctic waste.
A mere glance at a map is sufficient to
show that considerable part of west
ern Siberia lies farther south than Nice,
Venice, or Milan, and that the southern
boundary of the Siberian province of
Semirechinsk is nearer the equator
tkan Naples. In n country which thus
stretches from the latitude of Italy to
the latitude of central Greenland one
would naturally expect to find, and as
a matter of fact one does find. MANY
varieties of climate and scenery. In
| some parts of the province of Yakutsk
the mean temperature of the month of
January is more than 30 degrees below
zero, Fahr., while in the province of
Se1nipalatinsk the mean temperature
of the month of July is y degrees
above; and such maximum tempera-
lures as % anC 100 degrees in the
shade are comparatively common. On
the Taimyr peninsula, east of the Gull
; Of Oh, the permanently frozen ground
thawS out III summer to a depth of
onl Y few inches, and supports but a
scanty vegetation of berry bushes and
| moss, while in the southern part of
western Siberia watermelons and can
talOupes are a profitable crop, tobacco
IS grown upon thousands of plantations
and the peasants harvest annually more
than $4,000, 900 bushels of grain. The
fact which | desire especially to i'm
press upon the mind of the reader is
that Siberia is not everything uniform
and homogeneous. The northern part
of the country differs from the south
ern part quite as much as the Hudson
Bay territory differs from Kentucky;
and it IS as great a mistake TO attribute
the cold aud barrennesS of the Lena
delta to the whole of Siberia as itWould
be to attribute the cold and barrenness
of King William Land to the whole of
North America.
"TO the traveller who crosses the
Urals for the first time in June nothing
is more surprising than the fervent
heat 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 lis on the other side of the
mountains, we were fairly astonished
upon the threshold of western Siberia
by the scenery, the weather, and the
flora. Ia 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. If
we had been blindfolded and trans
ported to II 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 tlowery meadows and in the
elumps of birches by the roadside;
there were drowsy hum of bees and
a faint fragrance of flowers and YER
dure in the air; and the sunshine was
as warm and bright as that of a June
afternoon in the most favored part of
AS temperate zone