GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL REVIEW OF SIBERIA.
29
Siberia is particularly well provided with aquatic birds, gathered in im-
mense troops on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, and along lake and river banks.
In spring the river-floods coincide in time with the migration of the birds,
and offer a beautiful sight, with their wide expanses of shining water, thickly
dotted with birds of every hue moving rapidly in all directions.
The number of birds which find a shelter in some of the river systems is so
great that, for example on the Baikal, the surrounding cliffs and rocks disappear
under a thick layer of guano, which will long suffice as a source 01 manure.
All the immense river basins of Western and Eastern Siberia draining
in one direction to the Arctic Ocean, as well as the abundant and extensive
lakes, offer a great scope for the development of animal life.
These waters contain most varied kinds of fine and coarse fish represented
by perch, pike, lote, sturgeon and sterlet. The Siberian rivers abound in
particular in different species of gwiniad including nelma (Salmo nelma or
Corregonus leucichthys) ,,6mul" a kind of salmon (Salmo or Corregonus omul),
muksun (Salmo or corregonus muksun) and others.
The fauna of the Amur Littoral region changes essentially on the eastern
side of the Yablonovy chain, towards the Amur basin. Besides all the species
prevailing in the cultivated and forest zone of Siberia, here are to be found
species common to the Altai-Sayan mountains, and to the Mongolian and
Manehurian  steppes.   Specially  characteristic  are: the  musk-deer  (Moschus
PI. 39. Maral stud in the Altai (phot, by prof. Sap6zhnikov).
moschiferus, the roe-buck (Cervus capreolus), the rat-hare (Lagomys alpinus),
the korsak (Canis korsac), the steppe cat (Felis manul), the tiger (Pelis tigris),
the irbis (Felis irbis), two kinds of antilopes (Antilope gutturosa, A. crispa),
the kulan (Equus hemionus), the Amur raccoon (Canis procyonoides), the
maral (Cervus elaphus), the boar (Sus scrofa), the mountain wolf (Canis
alpinus), the Tibet bear (Ursus tibetanus) and. others.
The bird fauna comprises northern and southern species, the latter being