One of the lasting results of Castren's labours has been to place beyond reasonable doubt the Altai origin of the Finnish peoples[711]. Their cradle may now be localised with some confidence about the head waters of the Yenisei, in proximity to that of their Turki kinsmen. Here is the seat of the _Soyotes_ and of the closely allied _Koibals_, _Kamassintzi_, _Matores_, _Karagasses_ and others, who occupy a considerable territory along both slopes of the Sayan range, and may be regarded as the primitive stock of the widely diffused Finnish race. Some of these groups have intermingled with the neighbouring Turki peoples, and even speak Turki dialects. But the original Finnish type and speech are well represented by the Soyotes, who are here indigenous, and "from these their ... kinsmen, the Samoyeds have spread as breeders of reindeer to the north of the continent from the White Sea to the Bay of Chatanga[712]." Others, following a westerly route along the foot of the Altai and down the Irtysh to the Urals, appear to have long occupied both slopes of that range, where they acquired some degree of culture, and especially that knowledge of, and skill in working, the precious and other metals, for which the "White-eyed Chudes" were famous, and to which repeated reference is made in the songs of the _Kalevala_[713]. As there are no mines or minerals in Finland itself, it seems obvious that the legendary heroes of the Finnish national epic must have dwelt in some metalliferous region, which could only be the Altai or the Urals, possibly both. In any case the Urals became a second home and point of dispersion for the Finnish tribes (_Ugrian Finns_), whose migrations--some prehistoric, some historic--can be followed thence down the Pechora and Dvina to the Frozen Ocean[714], and down the Kama to the Volga. From this artery, where permanent settlements were formed (_Volga Finns_), some conquering hordes went south and west (_Danubian Finns_), while more peaceful wanderers ascended the great river to Lakes Ladoga and Onega, and thence to the shores of the Baltic and Lapland (_Baltic and Lake Finns_).