Throughout the whole of it the climate is very severe.

For about half of the year the ground is covered by deep snow, and the rivers are frozen.

By far the greater part of the land is occupied by forests of pine, fir, larch, and birch, or by vast, unfathomable morasses.

The arable land and pasturage taken together form only about one and a half per cent, of the area.

The population is scarce--little more than one to the English square mile--and settled chiefly along the banks of the rivers.