CAVERNS ON LAKE BAIKAL.
"The western shore is mountainous, and in places very picturesque. There are steep cliffs that come down to the water, and in some of these cliffs you find caverns and arches which recall the pictured shores of Lake Superior. Earthquakes are not unfrequent, and many persons believe that the lake occupies the crater of an extinct volcano whose internal fires are determined to keep themselves in remembrance. A village on the shore of the lake was destroyed by one of the shocks. Half of it was carried below the level of the water, and the other half thrown up to a considerable height above its former position.
"So much for this remarkable lake. From the western shore to Irkutsk (about forty miles) the road follows near the bank of the Angara, which is very swift. The river does not freeze until after the lake has been covered with ice, and for two or three miles below the point where it emerges from the lake it never freezes even in the severest winters. There is a great rock in the stream at this point which is regarded with superstition by the aboriginal inhabitants. They perform religious ceremonies when passing it, and formerly it was a place of sacrifice. Hundreds, if not thousands, of men, women, and children have been tossed from this rock to be drowned in the swift current flowing below it.
"It had been my original plan to reach Irkutsk on wheels, and remain there till the winter roads were formed, so that I could continue from that city in a sleigh. A snow-storm began an hour before I reached the city, and indicated that I had made a very good calculation; it cleared up soon after we passed the gate-way, and for several days thereafter the weather was delightful. My reception was most cordial; Americans were rare visitors in the capital of Eastern Siberia, and I was the first that many of the people had ever seen."
One of the youths remarked that he believed Irkutsk was a city of considerable size and importance.
