Sibiriakoff's Island has never, so far as we know, been visited by man, not even during the time when numerous _simovies_ were found at the mouth of the Yenesej. For no indication of this island is found in the older maps of Siberia, although these, as appears from the fac-simile reproduced at page 192, give the names of a number of _simovies_ at the mouth of the Yenisej, now abandoned. Nor is it mentioned in the accounts of the voyages of the great northern expeditions. The western strand of the island, the only one I have seen, completely bore the stamp of the _tundra_ described below. Several reindeer were seen pasturing on the low grassy eminences of the island, giving promise of abundant sport to the hunter who first lands there. Still at Yefremov Kamen we saw in 1875 three Polar bears who appeared to pasture in all peacefulness among the rocks, and did not allow themselves to be disturbed by the enormous log-fire of driftwood we lighted on the strand to make our coffee. Here were found for the last time during our journey up the river actual marine animals: Appendicularia, Olio, medusae, large beroids, &c. Large bushy plants were still completely wanting, but the vegetable world already began to assume a stamp differing from the Arctic Ocean flora proper. A short distance south of Yefremov Kamen begins the veritable _tundra_, a woodless plain, interrupted by no mountain heights, with small lakes scattered over it, and narrow valleys crossing it, which often make an excursion on the apparently level plain exceedingly tiresome. [Illustration: RIVER VIEW ON THE YENISEJ. (From a drawing by A.N. Lundstroem.) ] As is the case with all the other Siberian rivers running from south to north,[210] the western strand of the Yenisej, wherever it is formed of loose, earthy layers, is also quite low and often marshy, while on the other hand the eastern strand consists of a steep bank, ten to twenty metres high, which north of the limit of trees is distributed in a very remarkable way into pyramidal pointed mounds. Numerous shells of crustacea found here, belonging to species which still live in the Polar Sea, show that at least the upper earthy layer of the _tundra_ was deposited in a sea resembling that which now washes the north coast of Siberia.[211]