There is a considerable commerce carried on between the southern agricultural districts and the northern, which are inhabited by nomadic nations. A great number of Russian merchants at certain periods, especially in February, visit certain places to which the nomadic nations resort, to buy from the latter their furs and other objects. The Russian merchants give in return flour or bread, and a .few manufactured articles. These places of commerce are very small, but aro full of people at the time of the fairs. Among these places are Obdursk on the Obi, Toorookhansk on the Yeneseii Ust Yenta on the 'Yana, and Ostronoye on the Aniuy, one of the con fluents of the Kolyma. The most frequented are the first and the last. Tho fair of Obdursk is attended by all the nomadic) natious that live between the town of Archangel on the White Sea, and the river Yenese1, by Samoyedes, Syrianee, Ostiaks, and Vogules. The fair at Ostronoye is attended by the tribes that inhabit the north eastern peninsula of Asia, the Yookabires, Lamutes, Toonguses, Choowanzes, Koriakes, and particularly the Tehooktshes. The Tahooktshes, moat of whom have frequent dealings with the native tribes of the north-west districts of America, are in general sufficiently skilful in trading with the Russians; but they are easily cheated out of their goods when spirits are offered to them, which however are only smuggled into the country in very small quantities, as the Russian government has prohibited the importation of this article. In the commercial intercourse of the Tshooktabes with the native tribes of Russian America, the island of Imaklitt, one of the group of the Diomede or Gwesdef Islands, is generally the place where the exchange of goods takes place. The most active merchants are the American inhabitants of the two small islands called King's Islet or Ookivok, and AAA or Ajak, especially those of the last-mentioned island, who dispose of the Russian goods which are obtained from the Tahooktshes along the coast of America, as far south as the peninsula of Aliasks, and would probably carry them still farther to the east, if the settlements of the American Company did not provide the tribes in those parts with such articles. The Tahooktshes, as well as the Americans, visit the island of Imaklitt in summer in their boats called ' baidares,' which are made of whalebone, and in winter in sledges which are drawn by dogs. Tho Tehooktehes bring tobacco, some iron utensils and ornaments obtained from the Russians, with n considerable number of reindeer dresses, as this animal does not appear to be common in any part of North America. The Asink mutes, or inhabitants of the island of Aaiak, bring various descriptions of funs, and a great number of morse-tusks.
had not the Ieast knowledge of the existence of Siberia up to 1580. It is however certain that a part of it was conquered by Genes Khan and his successors; for it appears that tho Buriates were subjected to the Maas Mongols by that conqueror ; and when the Cossaks had passed the Ural Mountains, they found that the country on both !ides of the river Irtiali was subject to Kutaham Khan and his Tartars or Turki. A Cossak chief called Yen:atilt Timofiiyew, passed the Ural Mountains with his small army in 1580, and made several important acquisitions of territory till 1584, when he was drowned in the 'dish. After his death his conquests were lost to Russia, but the power of Kutandm Khan (the Tartar chief of this district) bad been broken, and he was unable to resume his former position. The Russians continued gradually to gain on him, until his empire was entirely destroyed, and all the country west of the river Obi was subjected to the sway of the Czar. In 1604 the town of Tomsk was built, which constituted a fresh point from which the bold spirits of the age might proceed farther east. In 1614 the
different Turkish tribes that inhabited those parts, joined by the Khirghia, rose against the inhabitants of Tomsk, laid waste the whole country to the very gates of the town, and besieged the city itself No succour could bo sent from Europe, as Russia was then in great internal disorder, owing to the unsettled state of the country after the death of Boris Godoonolh and the wars which preceded the acces sion of the family of Romanoff to the throne of Russia. But the inhabitants of Tema maintained their footing, though their progress for some time was retarded ; and several years afterwards, when tho Eastern Khirghis, in despair of resisting the Cossaks, left the country and emigrated to the west, the progress of the Russians was very rapid. Small parties of adventurers, issuing from Tomek, advanced to the banks of the Lake Baikal, entered the basin of the river Lena, where they subjected, though not without considerable difficulty, the powerful nation of the Yakutce, and after passing the Aldan Moun tains, reached the Sea of Okhotsk in 1639. Tho populous nation of the Buriates had been attacked nod partly conquered in 1620, but they frequently rebelled, and their complete submission was not effected before 1658. Soon afterwards the town of Irkutsk was built by Iwan Pochaboff (1661). Thus the whole of Siberia, with the exception of Da-uria, was subjected to Russia in about eighty years, without the government having been at the least expense; for all these wars had been undertaken and brought to successful issue by private adventurers, mostly Coasaks, who were induced to ouch under takings by the desire of plunder and by their roving habits. The conqtrest of Da-nria was completed in the same way. Khabarow, a Pole by birth, had escaped from VenomYak with a few exiles, and after wandering about for some time io the woods which surround Lake Baikal, he and his followers settled, beyond the present boundary of Siberia, on the Amur, in 52* 9' N. lat., where they built a small fortress. called Albasan. As they had offended their neighbours, some tribes of Toongusea, they feared they might be overpowered by numbers, and offered their conquest to the emperor of Russia, soliciting at the same time his forgiveness for their offences. Mean while the Toongusee had applied to the Chinese for assistance, and disputes subsequently arose between the courts of I'eking and St. Petersburg ; but by the intervention of the Jesuits who resided at Peking, a treaty was concluded in 1689, by which the boundary between Siberia and the Chinese empire was established. This treaty was confirmed by the treaty of 1727, in which Kiachta and Maimatshin were appointed as the only place. where a commercial intercourse between the two countries should take place. At the same time Ituasia obtained permission to send every ten years a spiritual embassy to Peking, in order that the prisoners taken by the Chinese at the last conquest of Albania, and their offspring, might receive instruction in their religion.
(Pallas; Georgi; Fischer; Sauer; Humboldt; Sarytcheff, Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the North-East of Siberia ; Klaproth, Magazin Asiatique; Cook, Third Voyage to the Pacific Ocean ; Cochrane, Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia and Siberian Tar tary ; Erdman ; Kotzebue, Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea, dc.; Beechey, Voyage to the Pacific; Rose, Reise nach dem Ural, dem Altai, end dyes Caspisches Afeere ; Wrangel, Reise tangs der Nordkilstc von Siberia' soul auf dees Eismeere, and Statistische and Ethnogr. ; Nach richten iiber 'die Ras:lichen Besitzungen in Nord America ; London Geographical Journal, vol. viii.)