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Yakutsk (Province in east Siberia)

a province in east Siberia, Russia, embracing the valley of the Lena river; bounded by the Yeniseisk, Irkutsk, Transbaikal, and Amur provinces, by the Arctic Ocean, and by a narrow strip of the district of Ochotsk. The population consists mainly of Yakuts, Yukagirs, and Tunguses, occupied in hunting, fishing, and as nomads overseeing large herds of cattle and horses. The country is rugged, consisting mainly of an elevated plateau, covered with forests and marshes. These marshes are frozen to a depth of several hundred feet. The forests abound in fur-bearing wild animals; the rivers with fish. Gold mining is carried on extensively in the S. W. Yakutsk is the largest Siberian province, embracing nearly one-third of Siberia, and is nearly as large as European Russia; area, 1,533,397 square miles; pop. about 400,000.