of SIAMF.SK commonly disregarded, except in ... which is indicated by the special words. Tlu- phral is expressed by add- ing some word like Mai, many, or *^ uch ; There are no inflections, and case is indicated by the use of a preposition, or by the position
- ,,nl in the Sentence. There is a great
, ,f pronouns, or pronominal expressions, and the proper use of one or another depends on th, "k of those writing or speak- ing. Moods and tenses are indicated by pre- fixes and suffixes, or by auxiliary verbs ; thus Kka bok I say ; hka dai bob, I have said ; hka cha bok, 1 shall say, &c. The Siamese are very fond of using words in pairs, for euphony, . or figurativeness. Siamese liter- ature is not of a very high order. The works on history and medicine contain little else but fables and quackery. The law books are very elaborate, but wanting in legal acumen and pre- The religious and philosophical pro- ductions are based upon the Pali scriptures and Chinese learning, and exhibit nothing of an original growth. The books of Siamese prov- erbs, however, have been praised as contain- ing much social wisdom sharply put. The best productions of Siamese literature are works of fiction, poems, and dramas, though a large portion of them are borrowed from or imita- i!id adaptations of Hindoo works. See Pallegoix, Grrammatica Lingua Thai (Bang- kok, 1850), and Dietionarium Lingua Thai . 1854); Bastian, Reuen in Siam (Ber- . liicli contains learned disquisitions on the language and literature of the coun- Mabaster, "Wheel of the Law" (London,
- and the " Siam Repository," a journal
published at Bangkok in English. SIAMESE TWIS. See MONSTER. SIBERIA, a part of the Russian dominions occupying the whole of northern Asia, bound- by the Arctic ocean, E. and S. E. by ItfliriiiK strait, Behring sea or the sea of Kam- t hatka, and the seas of Okhotsk and Japan (inlets of the North Pacific), S. by China and the Russian provinces of central Asia, and V. liv European Russia, from which it is sep- arated by the Ural mountains. As officially bounded, it extends from lat. 41 30' to 77 50' N.. and from Ion. 59 30' to 190 E.; length 3,600 m., breadth 2,000 m. ; area, 4,826,- 329 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 3,428,867. It is di- vided for administrative purposes into the four Mu-nts of Tobolsk, Tomsk, Yeniseisk, kutsk, and the foiir provinces of Trans- baikal, Yakutsk, Amoor, and the Littoral or I'rimorsk. In a geojrraphical sense, however, the four northern provinces of Russian Cen- Wia, Semipoiatinsk, Akmolinsk, Turgai,
- al-k, and portions of the governments
"in and Orenburg, also belong to Siberia, ill be included in parts of this descrip- 'if western end ol Siberia, as onVi.-illy constituted, and extends rctic ,.r,. : m to the Central Asian province of Akraolinsk. Tomsk lies E. of it SIBERIA on the borders of the Central Asian province of Semirietchensk. Yeniseisk includes the Arctic coast from the gulf of Obi to the river Anabara, and extends S. to the borders of Mongolia. Irkutsk lies between Yeniseisk and Lake Baikal, and the Transbaikal province east of Lake Baikal. Yakutsk comprises the Arctic coast from the Anabara river to Cape Shelag- ski, extending S. to the Amoor province, which ncludes the country on the left bank of the Amoor from the Stanovoi mountains to the N". E. extremity of Mantchooria. The Littoral province covers the entire E. coast from Cape Shelagski in the Arctic ocean to the sea of Ja- pan including the Tchuktchi peninsula, Kam- chatka, the district of Okhotsk, the lower course of the Amoor, and the island of Sagha- !} en> The coasts of Siberia, both along the Arctic ocean and the seas on the east and south, are indented by many bays and inlets. On the N. coast the first large inlet, beginning at the W. extremity, is Kara bay, an offshoot of the Kara sea lying between Siberia and Nova Zembla. Next is the gulf of Obi, an inlet of the same sea, which forms between it and Kara bay the Yelmert or Samoyed pen- insula. It receives the Obi or Ob at its S. W. extremity. A branch on its E. side is called the Taz gulf. The gulf of Yenisei, the outlet of the river of the same name, forms with Khatanga gulf, the outlet of the Khatanga riv- er, the Taimyr peninsula. On the W. side of Taimyr bay is Cape Taimyr or Northwest cape, and on its E. side, at the extremity of a long peninsula, is Tcheliuskin or Northeast cape, the northernmost point of Asia, in lat. 77 50' N. Between Khatanga gulf and Behring strait are many smaller bays, most of which are the outlets of some of the numerous rivers which empty into the Arctic ocean. The principal islands off the N. coast are the Liakhoff or New Siberia group, extending 205 m. opposite the shore between the mouths of the Yana and the Indigirka; the largest, Kotelnoi, is 100 m. long by 60 m. broad ; the next in size is called Fadeyeff, and the next New Siberia. Between the main group and the coast are smaller islands called Liakhoff and Maloi. The surface of the islands is covered with alter- nate layers of sand and ice, and in their hills are immense alluvial deposits filled with wood and the fossil bones of animals. Great quan- tities of fossil ivory have been obtained from them and the neighboring coasts of the main- land. N. of the coast, about the 180th meri- dian, and separated from it by Long strait, is Wrangel's, Plover, or Kellett land, of un- known extent. Along the whole Arctic coast of Siberia the sea is frozen for more than half the year ; and in the warmer seasons the ice floats in such masses as to render navigation always dangerous and often impossible. A large part of the coast is unexplored, and all efforts to double Cape Tcheliuskin have been unsuccessful ; but Lieut. Tcbeliuskin, from whom it is named, reached its north-
