Show ICE CLEAR ILEAR AS CRYSTAL the water e ef I 1 aho laue baikal in siberia is I 1 a remarkable le sight in eastern siberia lies lake which ie is a mile deep and hae has an ar area one third greater than lako lake erie from november to april it Is I 1 frozen and as t the b e lau lal e la Is part of 0 the commercial highway between russia and chin china it ie is ct cro 0 o essed in winter upon the tile ice for about a mile from the ice bad had a thin layer of 0 enow snow over it but we gradually left this sort of 0 dazzling white carpet and at length reached the clear ice when eisaw I 1 saw around me we the moat moist wonderful and bewitching blidt I 1 ever beheld I 1 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 N f I 1 I 1 4 I 1 X I 1 1 1 J I I 1 k F t 1 t I 1 I 1 IC V 9 id I 1 LL Z 5 1 il j c 7 G le batet I 1 the h e I 1 tee c e 1 presented r e e n t I 1 everywhere e r y w be n 1 the be reappearance appearance of polished crystal and arid although undoubtedly of great wasso was colorless that it was like im asing over space it gave rot me at first o 0 an uti canny filing to look over side of the klage down into the black abyss beneath this cetlin fet clug lin however gradually changed to one of till at I 1 last ast 1 I found it positively din difficult cult to withdraw my gaze from front the awful depth with nothing but tuia this of crystal between nit me and eternity I 1 believe that most travelers trav clen on crosing the lake oil the ice for the first time experience tho the same weird and fascinating influence about halt half way across I 1 stopped to make a sketch and 1 take some home photographs it was no tasy matter its I 1 found ou on getting out of the medge for the ice was so slipper 3 that in spite of my having felt enow snow boots on I 1 could hardly baand the deathlike silence of the surroundings was occasional ly broken however lio wever by curious bounds sounds a as though big guns were being fired at BOOK little distance they were caused by the cracking of the ice here and there I 1 was told that til ili some parts of the lake wen were huge fissures through which the water cc could ul d be been seer it is tor for thin reason that it is always nd ad to do the journey by daylight wt we reached on the opposite coast exactly ai 4 hours after leaving Liest benitz the horses having baring gone the whole distance of SO 30 miles with only two stoppages stoppage of a tow few minutes each it was evidently a easy bit of work tor for them as they seemed as fresh when wo ire drew up in ili the r as when they started in the morning arctic ocean |