Beyond the Yeniseisk Taiga begin the lowlands, which at no point rise more than a few hundred feet above the sea. They slope gently towards the Arctic Ocean and are covered with lakes, scanty forests and marshes; and, as they approach the ocean, they assume more and more the character of barren tundras. Beyond 70° N. trees occur only along the courses of the rivers. Two ranges, however, break the monotony of the lowlands—the Tungusk, which stretches N.E., between the Khatanga and Anabar rivers, and the Byrranga mountains, which skirt the N.W. shore of the Taimyr peninsula. The shores of the Arctic Ocean are indented by deep estuaries, that of the Taz penetrating 600 m. into the interior of the continent, and that of the Yenisei 300 m. Taymyr, Thaddeus and Khatanga Bays are wide and deep indentations, ice-bound almost all the year round. Taymyr peninsula, between the Yenisei and the Khatanga, is a stony tundra.
The government is drained by the Yenisei and its affluents. In 55° N. this river approaches the Chulym, a tributary of the Ob, from which it is separated by an isthmus only 6 m. in width. The possibility of connecting the two great river systems of Siberia at this point has often been discussed; the difficulty is that the Chulym valley is 440 ft. higher than the other.
Yeniseisk is rich in all kinds of metals and minerals. Gold dust appears in the N. Yeniseisk Taiga, in the region of the Kuznetskiy Ala-tau and its spurs, with the basins of the Tuba, Sisim and Black and White Yus, and in the upper parts of the tributaries of the Kan and Agul. Silver ore is found in the basin of the Abakan, but the mines have been abandoned. Iron ore occurs almost everywhere in S. Yeniseisk, but there is only one iron-work on the Abakan. Salt lakes are common.
The climate, though very severe throughout, offers great varieties. The Minusinsk steppes have a dry and relatively mild climate. At Krasnoyarsk (55° 1′ N.) the climate is more severe, and the winds are disagreeable. The yearly fall of snow is so small that the winds blow it away in the neighbourhood of the town. The town of Yeniseisk (58° 27′ N.) has an average temperature below freezing point, and at Turukhansk the coldest month (February) averages −24° F. On the Taymyr peninsula the average summer temperature hardly reaches 45°.
The highlands of Sayan and Ala-tau are thickly clothed with forests of cedar, pitch-pine, larch, elder and birch, with rhododendrons, Berberis and Ribes; the Scotch fir appears only in the lower and drier parts of the valleys. The summits and slopes of the mountains are strewn with débris and boulders, and thickly carpeted with lichens and mosses; but there are patches of meadowland brightened with flowers, most of which are known in Europe. Still, the flora is poor as a rule, and Dr Martianov, after several years' labour, succeeded in collecting only 104 species of phanerogams.[1] On the other hand, the Minusinsk plains and the steppes of the Abakan are bright with flowers scattered amid the common Gramineae, and in June and July with the Polygala, Dianthus, Medicago, Lathyus, yellow sweet-scented lily, and scores of other flowers, mostly familiar in Europe, but attaining in Yeniseisk a larger size and greater brilliancy of colour. The rich carpet of grass and flowers is over topped by the tall white blossoms of Archangelica and Spiraea Ulmaria, and by the blue masses of Veronica longifolia. The meadows of the moister localities, surrounded by thickets of willow, poplar, wild cherry and hawthorn, are still more attractive, on account of their wealth in anemones, violets, gentians and so on, and the numerous creepers which festoon the trees and shrubs. Dr Martianov's lists enumerate a total of 760 flowering and 760 cryptogamic plants. Of the lower Fungi and parasitical Myxomycetes 1300 species were noted, and out of the 823 species hitherto described by specialists no fewer than 124 have proved to be new. Farther N. the flora is similar in character to that of the Siberian lowlands (see Siberia). In the Taimyr peninsula it is represented by only 124 species of flowering plants.
The steppes of the upper Yenisei have been inhabited from a very remote antiquity, and numberless kurgans, or burial mounds, graves, rock inscriptions and smelting furnaces of the successive inhabitants are scattered all over the prairies of Abakan and Minusinsk.[2] The present population exhibit traces of all their predecessors. Numerous survivals of Turkish and Samoyedic tribes are found in the steppes and in the Sayans; but some of them are greatly reduced in numbers. The estimated population in 1906 was 657,900. It is almost entirely Russian, the rest (about 10%) consisting of Samoyedes, Tatars, Tunguses, Yakuts, Mongols and Ostyaks. The government is divided into five districts, the chief (owns of which are Krasnoyarsk, Achinsk, Kansk, Minusinsk and Yeniseisk.
Some 1,117,000 acres (0·2%) are under crops, the principal being rye, wheat, oats, barley and potatoes. Live-stock, including reindeer, breeding is very extensively carried on. Fishing, especially on the lower Yenisei, is of great importance. Sables are not now to be found, and the hunters obtain chiefly squirrels, foxes, Arctic foxes and bears. In the middle of the 19th century 350,000 to 525,000 oz. of gold were obtained annually in N. and S. Yeniseisk, but by the end of the century the output had dropped to less than 100,000 oz. Salt is extracted as well as Epsom salts. Coal has been found on the Lower Tunguzka, near the mouth of the Yenisei, and in many places in the S. of the government. Silver, copper, lead, brown coal or lignite, rock-salt, graphite and mica all exist in large quantities, but are not regularly mined. There are several distilleries. The trade is in furs (exported), and in groceries and manufactured goods (imported). The gold-fields of the Yeniseisk Taiga are supplied with grain and cattle by river from the Minusinsk region, and with salt, spirits and iron by the Angara. The government is traversed from W. to E. by the Siberian railway, and considerable efforts have been made to establish regular steamer communication between the mouth of the Yenisei and W. Europe. For some years before the close of the 19th century steamers (e.g. that of the English Captain Wiggins) reached the mouth of the Yenisei, importing provisions and machinery for the gold mines. Efforts have been made to clear the rapids of the Angara, so as to bring Lake Baikal into steamer communication with the Yenisei. Owing to the shallowness, however, of the small tributaries of the Yenisei, the canal connecting the Yenisei with the Ob has not proved as serviceable as was expected. (P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)
YENISEISK, a town of Asiatic Russia, capital of the government of the same name, on the right bank of the Yenisei, 170 m. N.N.W. of Krasnoyarsk, with which it has regular communication by steamer. Pop. 12,000. It is the centre of a gold-mining region, and has a public library and a natural history and archaeological museum. The town was founded in 1618.
YEOLA, a town of British India, in the Nasik district of Bombay, on the chord line of the Great Indian Peninsula railway, 18 m. from Manmad junction. Pop. (1901) 16,559. There are important manufactures of cotton and silk cloth and thread, and also of gold and silver wire. At the time of its foundation Yeola was under the emperor of Delhi; it subsequently passed into the hands of the rajas of Satara and then the Peshwas. Finally it was given in grant to Vithal, the ancestor of the present chief of Vinchur.
YEOMAN, a term of which the various meanings fall into two main divisions, first that of a class of holders of land, and secondly that of a retainer, guard, attendant or subordinate officer or official. The word appears in M.E. as ȝeman, ȝoman and yeman; it does not appear in O.E. Various explanations of the first part have been suggested, such as jung-mann, young man, and yeme-man, attendant, from yeme, care, but it is generally accepted that the first part is the same word as the Ger. Gau, district, province, and probably occurs in O.E. as géa in Súðri-géa, Surrey, i.e. southern district, and other place-names. Thus in O. Frisian is found gāman, a villager; Bavarian, gäumann, peasant. "Yeoman" thus meant a countryman, a man of the district, and it is this sense which has survived in the special use of the word for a class of landholders, treated below. For the transition in meaning to a guard of the sovereign's body and to officials of a royal household see Yeomen of the Guard and Valet. In the British royal household there are, besides the Yeomen of the Guard, a yeoman of the wine and beer cellar, a yeoman of the silver pantry and yeoman state porters. The term also occurs in the title of the first assistant to the Usher of the Black Rod, the Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod. In the British navy there are petty officers in charge of the signalling styled "Yeomen of Signals." For the history and present organization of the "yeomanry cavalry" see Yeomanry and United Kingdom (§ Army).
The extent of the class covered by the word "yeoman" in England has never been very exactly defined. Not only has the meaning of the word varied from century to century, but men writing about it at the same time have given to it different interpretations. One of the earliest pictures of a yeoman is that given by Chaucer in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Here, represented as a forester, he follows the esquire as a retainer or dependant. The yeomen of the ages succeeding Chaucer are, however, practically all occupied in cultivating the
