Bai'kal

Bai'kal (in Turkish, Bei-kul—i.e. 'rich lake') is, after the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Aral, the largest lake of Asia, with an area of some 13,500 sq. m. It is a fresh-water lake, and is situated in the south of Siberia, in the government of Irkutsk, in $51^\{\backslash circ\}\; 20\text{'}$ to $55^\{\backslash circ\}\; 30\text{'}$ N. lat., and $103^\{\backslash circ\}$ to $110^\{\backslash circ\}$ E. long., and somewhat resembles a sickle in shape. Its length is 380 miles, and its breadth $9\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ to 40 miles; height above the sea, 1360 feet; mean depth 850 feet, but in some places as much as 4500 feet, more than 3000 feet below sea-level! The volume of water is calculated accordingly to be more than double that of Lake Michigan, which has a very much larger area. Its waters are a deep blue, and remarkably clear. The Baikal Mountains, a spur of the Altai, inclose the lake, which is fed by numerous streams, the chief of which are the Selenga and Bargusin. Its outlet is by the Lower Angara, a chief tributary of the Yenisei; but the river is inconsiderable in size compared with those which flow into the lake. It has several islands, the largest of which, Olkhon, has a length of 32 miles. There are numerous hot springs on its shores, and earthquakes are frequent. Formerly the lake seems to have been much more extensive; its level has fallen 20 feet within recent years (see ASIA). It is known that a subaqueous ridge divides Baikal into two great basins. The lake, which has two commercial ports and a fleet of steamers, forms a link in the great Trans-Siberian Railway, the trains being carried across from Irkutsk on ice-breaking ferry-boats. The annual value of its fisheries is estimated at 200,000 roubles. Salmon and sturgeon are abundant, the former coming up the Yenisei from the Arctic Ocean, and large quantities of a fish resembling herring are also caught in it. It is one of the few lakes containing fresh-water seals, the capture of which employs most of the Russian settlers throughout the summer. A peculiar fish, called the golomynka (Callionymus baicalensis), which is almost one mass of fat, yielding admirable oil, was at one time found in immense numbers cast up on the beach after a storm, but it is now much scarcer. The surface of the lake is frozen from November to May, but the traffic is carried on over the ice. Besides the Russians in the town of Kultuk at the SW. end (with a harbour and lighthouse), the shores of Lake Baikal are also inhabited by tribes of the Buriats and Tunguses. See ASIA; and the Scottish Geographical Magazine, January 1898.