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Show Ground Never Thaws in Northern Siberia Eternal ice, to depths of more thau 100 yards, binds the soil of northern Siberia eveu in summer, according to Professor Schostakowitch, of Irkutsk, Ir-kutsk, who spoke at Berlin recently before the Berlin Geographical 'society. 'so-ciety. The frozen ground covers an area of 5,000,000 square kilometers, a territory half as large as Europe. In Jakutsk a well has been sunk to a depth of 117 meters without rinding the bottom of the frozen stratum. The ice hinders the sinking of surface water, wa-ter, so that vast cold bogs or tundras are formed on what might otherwise be fertile soil. The only spots where thawing ever penetrates this everlasting everlast-ing ice are directly beneath stove-heated stove-heated houses. Cases are on record where these thawed columns of soil tapped subterranean rivers flowing under the ice layer, resulting in veritable ver-itable artesian wells that spouted to the ceilings and drove out the occupants. occu-pants. This water soon froze, turning turn-ing the whole house into a solid block of ice, decorated with gigantic icicles- |