If Siberia resembles Canada in some things, it must be confessed that the latter country has every advantage in point of beauty and position. In the first place, Siberia is more to the north; that portion which approaches nearest to the Equator is situated about 43° latitude—that is to say, a little more to the north than the extreme south of Upper Canada, and, being on the Pacific, it is most distant from European Russia, whereas the corresponding part of Canada is the nearest to England, and washed by the Atlantic, the St. Lawrence, and the great lakes. On the other hand, that part of Siberia which is closest to Russia is covered to the south by barren steppes or by mountains which confine the centres of civilization between 54° and 57° latitude. Moreover, whereas the coast of Canada on the Pacific enjoys a much milder climate than the country situated on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, the regions of Siberia which border the Great Ocean are just as frigid as the rest of the country. The heights which separate the basin of the Amur from that of the Lena are not sufficiently elevated to form a barrier against piercing north winds, and the Japanese Archipelago interposes itself between the coast and the warm waters of the Black Current, which plays the same part in the Pacific as the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic. Thus it happens that the climate of Trans-Baikalia, where the rivers which, when united, form the Amur take their source, is one of the most rigorous in Siberia, and the sea is covered with ice in the port of Vladivostok, which lies in the same latitude as Marseilles, whereas, opposite on the American coast, seven degrees northward, the winters of British Columbia are not more severe than those of Holland or the West of Germany. Notwithstanding its terrible climate, Siberia is not entirely uninhabitable; indeed, even on the borders of the Arctic Ocean humanity is represented by a few aboriginal Polar tribes, who wander from place to place in sledges drawn by dogs, and usually followed by a numerous herd of reindeer. The white man, however, cannot endure the conditions prevailing in the extreme north, and it is therefore necessary with a view to colonizing that one must learn to distinguish between the different parts of Siberia.