effecting exchanges with the interior, where its basin offers a navigable waterway of altogether not less than 6,000 miles.*
The natural resources of this basin, whose entire population scarcely exceeds 300,000, rival those of West Siberia. The river itself abounds in fish no less than the Ob, while its forests are more extensive. It is also skirted by fertile plains and plateaux affording excellent pasture. The auriferous sands of the Vitim and Olokma are the richest in all Asia; argentiferous lead, copper, and iron ores are met in various places, although no systematic survey has yet been made of these treasures. Salt in superabundance is yielded by many lakes, saline springs, and whole mountains of chloride of sodium. Sulphur springs rise along the river banks, and are lost in the stream. Lastly, coal beds belonging to the same formation as those of the Nijnyaya Tunguska basin crop out along the banks of the Vilûi, and skirt the Lena almost uninterruptedly for over 900 miles below the "Colonnades." Some of these coal-fields, kindled by the forest fires, have been burning for years, and the smoke rising from the eminences have given occasion to the local traditions regarding the existence of volcanoes in North Siberia.
The Yana, Kolima, and Indigirka Rivers—The Arctic Islands—New Siberia.
The Kharaûlakh Hills, raising their snowy, or at least snow-streaked, crests here and there to a height of 1,300 feet, separate the Lower Lena from the Yana, which flows directly to the north, and enters the Arctic Ocean through a vast delta over 90 miles broad east and west. The southern extremity of the Kharaûlakh Hills is connected by the Verkho-Yansk range eastwards with the Stanovoi plateau along the northern edge of the Aldan valley. The route from Yakutsk to Nijne-Kolimsk, on the Lower Kolîma, crosses this range by a pass 2,150 feet high, commanded by crests rising to an elevation of from 830 to 1,000 feet. The road to Verkho-Yansk, on the Upper Yana, also follows a pass 4,660 feet high, winding through a defile 660 feet deep. The Indigirka and the Kolîma, which, like the Yana, rise on the northern slopes of the Verkho-Yansk range, bear a striking resemblance to this river in the length and direction of their course, the volume of their stream, the rapids formed in their upper reaches, and the islands of their deltas. All rise in the same wooded highlands, and flow northwards through the level plain of the tundras; but, although navigable, none of them are frequented except by the fishing craft of the Yakuts, Yukaghirs, and a few Russian settlers. The most abundant in animal life is the Kolîma, which, like the two Anyûi joining its east bank in a common delta, teems with fishes of various kinds.
| Miles. | |||||
| * | Navigable | course of the | Lena | 2,920 | |
| ,, | ,, | Vitim | 345 | ||
| ,, | ,, | Olokma | 600 | ||
| ,, | ,, | Aldan | 900 | ||
| ,, | ,, | Amga | 300 | ||
| ,, | ,, | Maya | 300 | ||
| ,, | ,, | Vilûi | 728 | ||
| Total | 6,085 | Miles. | |||
