Book excerpt: Today there remain relatively few areas of the planet Earth where man rarely takes a step, casts an eye, or disturbs the natural environment, but most of Siberia is like that. For the time being, but not for long. Siberia, according to some accounts, originally meant "sleeping land". A glance eastward toward the giant land mass beyond the Ural Mountains of Northern Asia will quickly convince you that a new day is dawning there. You can see that Siberia is stirring. Its slumber is ending. The land is awakening. There is movement. Siberia has been overlooked for much too long. Now it is time to look over Siberia.