Note 5 — Chapter XVIII · THE YENESEI.

The larch is called in Russ listvenitsa (from list, a leaf, and venets, a crown), in allusion to the arrangement of its acicular leaves. Its wood looks well for the walls and ceilings of the peasants’ rooms. The larch is highly valued also for its power of resisting the effects of moisture, besides which, when used as fuel, it is found to produce a high degree of heat (in which respect the birch comes next), though it does not produce a brilliant light. For the tile-kilns it is preferable to all other wood, but it is not used for charcoal, nor does it serve well for burning in the house, on account of the pungent and stupefying qualities of its smoke; nor in the furnaces used for the manufacture of rolled iron plates, for it soils the metal.

The elegant spruce fir, with its branches almost down to the root and trailing on the ground, is more abundant, and extends nearly as far north. The Siberians look upon this tree as very important for commercial purposes. The wood is white, light, and very elastic. It is the favourite tree for masts, and is considered the best substitute for ash for oars, and it makes the best “knees” for shipbuilding. Snow-shoes also are generally made of this wood. The quality is good down into the roots. It is, however, subject to very hard knots, which are said to blunt the edge of any axe not made of Siberian steel. The Siberian spruce is less abundant, and differs from the common spruce in having a smooth bark of an ash-grey colour. The leaves are also of a much darker and bluer green. The wood is soft and liable to crack and decay, and is consequently of little commercial value; but, being easy to split, it is largely used for roofing and for fuel. The cost of firewood in Siberia per sajen, or seven-feet cube, is 3s., as compared with 12s. in Petersburg, and from 20s. to 30s. at Moscow. At Krasnoiarsk a log of building timber, 80 feet long, costs from 20d. to 3s., whilst bricks cost from 16s. to 20s. per 1,000. The Scotch fir, with the upper trunk and branches almost of a cinnamon yellow, is in many places very abundant.

The Siberian is proudest, however, of his cedar—a tree very similar in appearance to the Scotch fir, but more regular in its growth—clothed with branches nearer to the ground, and with an almost uniform grey trunk. For furniture and indoor wood it is considered to be the best timber in the country, and is said never to rot or shrink, warp or crack. It is soft and easy to work, but has a fine grain, and is almost free from knots. The Ostjaks use it for building their large boats. They take a trunk two or three feet in diameter, split it, and of each half make a wide, thin board. Having no proper saws, they are obliged to cut the wood away with an axe, and thus the greater part of the tree is wasted. The Russian peasant is still more prodigal with his timber, for when I was going through the forest east of the Yenesei, a felled cedar-tree was pointed out, and the remark made that it was quite usual that a man who wanted nuts should cut down a fine tree for the sole purpose of replenishing his bag with the nut-filled cones.

The birch is common up to the 70th parallel, and still further north, on the tundra, in suitable localities, the creeping birch and two or three sorts of willow may be met with. The alder is abundant, and the juniper. The poplar is found as far north as Turukhansk. The Ostjaks hollow their canoes from the trunks of this tree.