FAR EASTERN AREA, an administrative unit of Asiatic Russia, created in 1922, upon the fall of the independent Far Eastern People's Republic : it occupies 2,846,323 sq.km., but its population in 1926 was only about 1,843,000. Eastward from Chaun bay the Arctic ocean forms its northern boundary, and the Bering sea, the Okhotsk sea and the Gulf of Tartary wash its eastern shores. The Yakutsk and Buriat-Mongol Soviet Republics lie to the west, the boundary running for the most part along the crests of the Anadyr, Stanovoi and Yablonoi mountains. Mongolia, Manchuria and Korea lie to the south ; the Peking Convention of 186o defined the boundary between Russia and Manchuria as following the Argun, Amur, Ussuri and Sungacha rivers to Lake Khanka, thence crossing the lake westwards to the Pai-ling river, thence along a mountain range to the junction of the Hu-pu-tu (Khubtu) with the Suifen river, and thence along the Hunchun river, and along the range of mountains be tween that river and the sea, up to the Tumen river 6 m. inland from its mouth. However, most maps show the boundary as running along the whole course of the Hu-pu-tu river. The ocean boundary lies along the Bering strait, separating Russia from Alaska and Lawrence island, and passes south of Cape Lopatka separating the Kurile isles from Kamchatka. The Commander islands, off the east of Kamchatka peninsula, and the part of Sakhalin island north of lat. 5o°, form part of the Far Eastern Area. A commission is at present (1928) considering the follow ing alterations of the boundary between the Yakutsk Republic and the Far Eastern Area (1) the provision of an outlet to the sea for the Yakutsk Republic through Ayan, a port on the sea of Okhotsk; (2) the creation of an autonomous Tungus area, formed partly from the south-eastern Yakutsk Republic and partly from the Uda river territory of the Far Eastern Area, with Chumukan as its administrative centre; (3) the union of the Aldan-Amur goldfield under one administration; (4) the union of the Kolyma river district with the Okhotsk river district. It should be noted that an isolated portion of the Trans-Baikal province belongs to the Buriat Mongol Republic (q.v.). Much of the area is unproductive, and difficulties of position, structure and climate combine to retard its development. A great part of Kamchatka has not yet been topographically or geologically surveyed, and uncertainty exists as to the continuity of the Yablonoi and Stanovoi mountains, and as to the north-eastern termination of the latter. The relation of the Great Khingan to the Stanovoi is also not yet worked out. Much of Kamchatka, both peninsular and continental, is occupied by mountains, and in the Amur province a range of granitic and schistose mountains, called the Little Khingan, or Bureya or Dousse Alin, runs parallel to the Great Khingan from the north bank of the Amur river, while still further east is the Sikhota Alin range, occupying most of the Maritime Province. The only volcanic activity is in Kam chatka peninsula, where a series of partly active and partly ex tinct volcanoes runs along the east coast. Kluchevskaya, 16,13o ft., is probably the highest active volcano in Asia. The Trans Baikal region, with the Selenga, Vitim and Aldan plateaux, forms part of a terrace rising 3,00o to 5,000 ft. above the general 1,200 to 1,500 ft. level of the high eastern plateau of Asia. Tundra occupies one-third of the Far Eastern Area, and in addition part of north Sakhalin is tundra. If these tundra regions are ex cluded, 64% of the remaining land is forest clad. The forests may be divided roughly into three groups, (1) the Daurian type stretching from the west of Transbaikal to the Zeya river, con sisting mainly of larch and birch, with open prairies which in spring become grassy seas, where the peony, aconite and similar blooms reach a height of 4 to 5 ft.; (2) the Manchurian type, extending eastward from the Bureya river and southward along the western slopes of the Sikhota Alin range. The prevailing trees are fir, silver fir and Manchurian cedar, amongst which are sprinkled broad-leaved Manchurian varieties, e.g., velvet tree, Greek nut, Manchurian ash, Mongolian oak and a few species of maple; (3) the Okhotsk-Kamchatka' flora occupying Okhotsk and Kamchatka, the eastern slopes of the Sikhota Alin, the north ern parts of the Amur and Maritime provinces and the island of Sakhalin. It consists mainly of the Siberian fir and cedar, with a few birch, aspen, alder and poplar trees. In spite of this wealth, the timber industry is little developed, partly because of the lack of road communication and sea tonnage and partly because of the lack of suitable port facilities ; the capital to provide these is lacking. The Amur river forms an excellent summer waterway for timber, but Nikolaevsk at its mouth has no facilities for timber haulage and embarkation. The river is frozen from November to May and at Nikolaevsk to June. At present, there fore, Vladivostok is the main timber port, but the fact that timber must be carried by rail to it increases the cost and hence puts Russian timber at a disadvantage on the world market.
Vladivostok also is the natural outlet for Manchurian timber, and with better dock facilities could double its trade. Oak, cedar, fir and planks of aspen for match manufacture are chiefly ex ported, while Imperatorskaya bay (now Soviet bay) exports soft woods to Australia, and Olga bay exports pit props. Attempts are being made to replace the export of raw timber by local in dustries dependent on timber, and match, veneer and plywood factories have been established in the Ussuri valley, while in Transbaikalia, the Amur province and Primorsk there are now more than 3o timber mills, those round Vladivostok manufactur ing barrels for the fishing industry. At Spasskaya (Yevgenevka) on the Ussuri railway, is a factory producing turpentine, tar, wood alcohol, vinegar, resin and potash.
In spite of destructive exploitation in the past, hunting and trapping still form the chief occupation of the native tribes, and a supplementary source of income for the Russian settlers. The Arctic fox and white bear are found only north of lat. 6o°, and the former is not so abundant as in western Siberia. The blue, the red and the black or silver fox are trapped in quantity, especially by the Koryaks. The raccoon dog, a native of China and Japan, is found in the Amur basin and valued for its skin in winter and its flesh in summer. The polar bear is found where there are seals, but the brown or Kamchatkan bear is common in the forests and yields both fur and food; the black or Tibetan bear is found in the south. The Gilyak tribes are specially skilled in bear hunting, and the bear has religious significance for many native tribes. The marten and sable are decreasing; the best sable comes from the Nerchinsk, Amgun and Zeya districts and the poorest quality from Sakhalin. Ermine, glutton, skunk and otter are also decreasing. The hare is trapped for local use, though many tribes will not eat its flesh. Squirrels are not found in Kamchatka, but in the south they are common, and their skin is in great demand for gloves, hoods and carriage aprons. The reindeer is widespread in the tundra region, the Koryaks and Chukchee often owning herds of two to five thou sand head, which provide them with meat, leather and means of locomotion. War conditions of 1914-22 had a disastrous effect, and it has been calculated that of 1,622,000 reindeer, only 687,000 survived. The elk is also found, and the wapiti and maral deer are valued for their horns. From the horns of the maral deer a powder called panty is obtained which is in great request amongst Chinese physicians. The musk deer is hunted in the Amur region and Sakhalin; its flesh is eaten, its skin used for clothing and its thin leg bones made into arrowheads. The roebuck, stag, rock-deer and spotted deer are found, and in the island of Askold near Vladivostok, the siku. The musk ox is extinct, except pos sibly in Sakhalin.
The Commander islands were at one time famous for the fur seal, but promiscuous killing has greatly diminished its numbers. Near Chita and in the jungles of the Primorsk area, tigers are much dreaded; the snow leopard, lynx and two varieties of wild cat are also found. Fish is abundant and varied, both in the rivers and the sea; many native tribes rely on fish for food in much the same way as we rely on bread. It is salted or frozen for winter use, and towards the end of winter is often eaten in an advanced state of decomposition. The best market for ex ported fish is Japan. Attempts are being made to foster a tinned fish industry, and Kamchatkan tinned salmon, mainly put up under Japanese direction, finds an increasing market. The scarcity of salt greatly hampers the fish preserving industry, and the government is (1928) financing the Yakutsk salt mines on Vilyui river, a tributary of the Lena, to meet the need. Herrings are abundant in Peter the Great gulf and could find a ready market in Siberia if better transport and refrigerator facilities were provided. The Keta or dog-salmon is common except in south Kamchatka, and from its skin the natives make sails, clothes and boots. For a detailed account of the numerous kinds of fish see A Handbook of Siberia and Arctic Russia, I.D. 1207. London 1920, in which there is also a detailed account of the various native tribes.
The mineral wealth is as yet not completely surveyed. Gold output has diminished markedly since 1917 and will probably need to be put on a machine using basis in place of the old hand methods; it is mainly obtained from alluvial washings. The rich quartz deposits could not be profitably exploited under present conditions. Climatic conditions make work possible only in summer, and most of the gold is found in places where the ground never really thaws ; if the summer is dry, water for washing is deficient; if wet, flooding is troublesome. Population is scanty, roads almost non-existent and the cost of bringing machinery and food supplies is exceedingly heavy. The chief regions are the Nerchinsk, the Zeya and its tributaries, the Bureya, and especially its tributary, the Niman; Blagovyeschensk and Zeya-Pristan have government gold laboratories. The Amgun mines near Kerbinski have proved too costly to exploit, but the Orsk mines on Lake Chlya, near Nikolaevsk, are more successful. The more accessible mines in the Ussuri district are worked out, but a new source has been opened on the Iman river. Quartz gold was extracted formerly from Askold island near Vladivostok. The silver mines of Nerchinsk, in Transbaikal, which were worked as early as 1704 and reached their maximum output in 1774, are no longer worked, since the easily reached layers are exhausted and the Kirghiz silver mines are more productive. Zinc and silver-lead mines are worked near Tyutikha bay and Soviet bay. Wolfram, bismuth, asbestos, platinum, molybdenum, osmiridium and tin are found and many precious stones, unworked for lack of demand. Antimony occurs in quantity in the Amur province. Brown coal of a low calorific value has been mined in the Trans baikal and Amur province since the coming of the railway. In the Maritime province both brown coal and a better variety are mined for the Ussuri railway, but the best coal is obtained from Sakhalin; the Japanese markedly developed the mines during their occupation. The eastern shores of Sakhalin also produce good quality naphtha, and this and the coal are worked by a Japanese concession. Iron was worked in the Transbaikal in the i8th century and an iron foundry existed at Petrovsk on the Balaga river; it declined after the opening of the trans-Siberian railway, but revived temporarily in 1914-22. Chinese competi tion, with better fuel and ore conditions, is now reducing its prosperity. The Olga bay iron industry is more prosperous. North-east Kamchatka has undeveloped resources of gold, plati num, silver-lead ore, iron, coal, granite, marble and naphtha. In 1925 concessions were granted to the following British firms, (1) "Lena Goldfields" for 3o years. (2) "The Priamur Mines" for 36 years to develop the iron, zinc, lead and silver at present un worked in the Olga bay district. (3) "The Tetukhe Mining Cor poration" for 36 years to develop the zinc, silver, lead and sul phate near the Tetukhe river. (4) "The Ayan Corporation" for 36 years to work the gold mines in Kamchatka. The industries of the Far Eastern Area are at present mainly restricted to peasant products for local needs, homespun, sewn leather foot wear, flour-milling, etc. Leather is distinctly a peasant industry, except in Vladivostok and the Transbaikal. Vladivostok and Blagovyeschensk are important flour-milling centres, and a maca roni industry was established at the former town in 1923. Both towns have shipbuilding and repairing industries; the latter for the Amur river fleet. The former Khabarovsk arsenal now pro duces agricultural implements. The damage to the railway bridges and rolling stock and to the river fleet during 1914-1922 is still felt. Roads are lacking in many places and are often impassable in the rainy season. The opening of the final railway link be tween Khabarovsk and the Transbaikal in 1914-15, has not yet had time to make its influence felt. Coastal transport is difficult owing to the uncharted seas and the summer fogs and winter ice. The Far Eastern Area thus presents itself as an area of potential wealth as yet undeveloped. Its present exports of tim ber, fish, furs, coal, oats, beans, rice, hempseed and bran hardly cover its imports of grain, fats, tea, sugar, meat, cattle, agricul tural and other implements, machinery and small necessities such as paper, soap and chemicals. The seasonal nature of its indus tries and the difficulties of agriculture, combined with transport difficulties are a check on colonization, and yet intensive coloniza tion is the only means of creating a demand for manufactures of a non-seasonal character. Its chief towns (q.v.) are Vladivostok, Blagovyeschensk, Khabarovsk, Chita and Nerchinsk.
Of the Neo-Siberian tribes, sometimes called the Ural-Altaic, the Tungus are the most important in this region; they are a branch of the same Mongolic tribe as the Manchu. They stretch from the Taimir peninsula along the Yenisei valley across the Vitim plateau to the sea coast almost from Korea to Kamchatka; the Amur and Ussuri are Tungus streams. The Lamuts and Olennye of the Chukchee peninsula are a branch of the Tungus. The southern Tungus fall into two linguistic groups, one including the Orochon, Manegir, Birar and Kile, the other the Olcha, Oroke, Negda and Samagir. Physical and linguistic divisions do not, however, correspond, e.g., the Olcha resemble the Gilyaks phys ically, and the Samagir resemble the Goldi of the Amur, Ussuri and Sungari region. In Transbaikal many Tungus have become sedentary and intermingled with the Russian settlers, but the nomadic cattle-breeding Tungus, forming about 45% of the whole, have preserved their nationality and language and are demanding recognition of an autonomous area. The Buriats of Transbaikal are the principal Mongol tribe in Siberia; the eastern branch is known as the Aga-Buriat, as distinct from the Buriat Mongol (q.v.). In 1925 the first congress of native peoples of the Trans baikal, Amur and Primorsk regions was held. It laid down a broad basis for preserving native cultures and suggested plans, (I) for combating shamanism (q.v.), the sale of women, and the spread of such diseases as syphilis, leprosy, etc., (2) for establishing co operation among the natives to prevent their exploitation, (3 ) for enabling the natives to adapt themselves gradually to timber and other industries, in view of the fall in the value of hunting and fishing. Though as yet it is early to expect results, the con gress is significant of a new outlook on problems of the relations of native tribes and incoming settlers and traders. In 1926 a station providing veterinary aid to native reindeer breeders and medical help for the natives was established in St. Lawrence bay near Bering strait.