"I crossed the lake in a steamboat, and during the voyage listened eagerly to the description of the winter passage which is made on the ice. I will give it as nearly as I can remember in the words of my informant, a gentleman who filled the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction in Eastern Siberia:
A NATURAL ARCH ON LAKE BAIKAL.
"'The lake does not freeze over until quite late in the autumn, and when it does the whole surface is congealed in a single night. In a few days the ice is from three to six feet thick, and perfectly transparent. The first time I crossed it was from the western to the eastern shore. The former is mountainous, while the latter is low and flat. As we began our ride the land on the other side was quite invisible, and it seemed to me very much like setting out in a sleigh for a voyage from Queenstown to New York. When I leaned over and looked downward, it was like gazing into the depths of the ocean. It was not until I alighted and stood on the firm ice that I could dispel the illusion that we were gliding over the unfrozen surface of the lake, as the natives believe its guardian spirit walks upon the waters without sinking beneath them.
"'At night every star was reflected as in a mirror, and I saw the heavens above me, beneath me, and all around. As the rising moon lighted up the faint horizon of ice and sky, I could half believe I had left the world behind me, and was moving away through the myriads of stars towards the centre of another solar system distinct from our own.'
"The natives have many superstitions concerning the Baikal," Mr. Hegeman continued. "In their language it is the 'Holy Sea,' and they consider it sacrilege to call it a lake. It is very deep, soundings of two thousand feet having been made without finding bottom. It is more like a sea than a lake in some of its peculiarities; gulls and other ocean birds fly over it, and it is the only body of fresh water on the globe where the seal abounds. There are banks of coral in some parts of it, in spite of the high northern latitude and the constant coldness of the water. The natives say that nobody is ever lost in the lake; any one drowned in its waters is thrown up on the shores."
"It must be a long drive from one side of the lake to the other," one of the youths remarked.
"It is, indeed," was the reply. "Formerly they had a station on the ice in the middle of the lake, which was removed at the approach of spring. One season the ice broke up unexpectedly, and the entire station, with all its men and horses, was swallowed up. Since that time no station has been kept there in winter, and the entire journey across, about fifty-five miles, is made without a change. The horses are carefully selected, and as the road is magnificent they go at great speed, stopping only two or three times for a rest of a few minutes.