Note 3 — Chapter XVIII · THE YENESEI.

The gigantic proportions of the Yenesei will be further realized from its width, which at Krasnoiarsk, 1,700 miles from the sea, is more than 1,000 yards, and at Yeneseisk it measures rather more than a mile. From thence it widens gradually, so that at the Kureika it enlarges to about three miles; and between Tolstonosovsk and Goltchikha it expands like a lake with a breadth of more than 40 miles. The delta and lagoon formed by its waters are about 400 miles in length. The depth of the river varies, of course, according to the season, but opposite Dudinsk M. Théel’s sounding-line indicated a depth of 12 fathoms. The river has a fall of 4,000 feet, and the banks generally are steep and lofty, from 60 to 100 feet above the water. Thus it would seem that comparatively little land is covered by the summer floods, which is just the reverse in the case of the Obi. M. Théel observes, however, that it frequently happens, when one bank is high, the other is low, from which it follows that the vegetation on either side assumes a somewhat different character; for where the bank is low, and consequently exposed to inundations, one sees abundance of willows, whilst the higher bank is very often covered with fir, pine, and larch.