BAIKAL, a lake situated in the government of Irkutsk in Siberia,%nd, next to the Caspian Sea, the largest expanse of water within the limits of the Rus sian empire.
No where, perhaps, could a person, who should traverse the globe, meet with an object more truly interesting than the Baikal, whether we consider the rude sublimity of its scenery, or the singular pheno mena which both the lake itself and the surrounding country present to the observation of the naturalist. ,Those who have visited this wonderful place, seem at a loss for language adequate. to. the feelings which it excites when first beheld. After travelling through a vast extent of country, diversified by neither lake nor sea, the traveller at length reaches a chain of rugged mountains, which, forming an immense am. phitheatre, enclose a lake that stretches far beyond the. reach of sight, and, by the violent agitation and dreadful roaring of its billows, sometimes assumes all the magnificence of a mighty ocean, while, at other times,. the clearness of its: unruffled bosom emulates the lustre of the finest mirror.
The traces of those. tremendous concussions, by which.our world_ has once been agitated, are here extremely discernible. The lake itself can only be regarded as an. enormous gulf, formed by the rending of the mountains, and intended by as a reservoir for. her immense stores of. water ; while its rocky shores bear in almost every spot the visible marks of some terrihle rexolution, of which they in dicate, at the same time, the remote antiquity. Its. channel consists of the broken fragments of hills, the largest of which still rise above the surface in the form of islands. Its coast is one heap of broken rocks piled above each other to the height of forty fathoms. Cliffs, whose bases are sunk in unfathoma ble pits, lift, their shattered summits to the clouds ; and on the pinnacles of the loftiest mountains arc found enormous stones in whimsical shapes, which could only be projected thither by some violent con vulsion of the earth.
Nature seems to have exhausted herself by one great effort in forming the. Baikal ; for, though earthquakes are still frequent in the surrounding re gions, they are in general so slight, that their shock is not felt at .any considerable distance. The most remarkable effect of these earthquakes is visible in the lake itself, which even in the serenest weather, and while its surface is smooth as glass, sometimes under goes the most violent internal agitations. At times, too, in a particular part of,the lake, a single wave will suddenly rise, which is succeeded by' Several others in the same spot. Most of the phenomena, indeed, observable in the Baikal, seem to be peculiar and anomalous. The state of its surface is almost entirely independent of the violent storms to which it is subject. Even in a very moderate breeze it often rages with alarming fury, while the strongest gales scarcely produce any perceptible increase of agita tion.
These peculiarities render the navigation of this lake extremely hazardous ; for, however inviting the weather may he, and however propitious the gale, a vessel may suddenly he wrecked by one of those vio lent commotions, which no sagacity can foresee, and no activity controul. Furious hurricanes, too, of
ten burst in a moment from the surrounding moun tains, and if, on these occasions, the bark happens to be in a narrow or shallow part of the lake, its de struction is inevitable. At a distance from the shore, the danger is less imminent ; as in the middle of the lake there are no hidden rocks nor banks against which a vessel can strike. The mariners who navigate the Baikal have a compass peculiar to them selves, in which they distinguish only three winds. Those which blow between the north and south are called Bargusin, because they proceed from the di rection of the river Bargusin : when they prevail, the passage is expeditious from the mouth ofthe Se lenga to the opposite shore. Those which arise be tween the north-west and south-west are called Koul touk, as coming from the extensive bay of that name: while the north-winds, which are by far the most dangerous, are named GORNAIA POGODA, or winds If the mountains; because the northern shore, from -,vhich they spring, is particularly mountainotis: The Baikal extends from the 51° to above the 55° of North latitude. It is upwards of 300 miles long, and its breadth varies' from sixteen to .fifty miles. Its depth, though unequal, is in some places incre dibly great. In some of the central gulfs a line of more than three thousand fathoms could not reach the bottom ; and Pallas mentionsthat from'the mid dle of this lake to its northern shores, the depth was in general so immense, that a clue of packthread more than an ounce in weight was insufficient to sound it. Of the rivers that discharge themselves into the Baikal, the principal are the Upper Anga ra, the Bargusin, and the Selenga, which join it from the north, the east, and the south. The only outlet from this enormous reservoir is the Lower (or Great) Angara, which, bursting from it's western side with impetuous rapidity, through a channel more than a mile broad, interspersed, too, with huge fragments of rock, presents a 'scene of awful sublimity, and stuns with its thundering noise the inhabitants of all the adjacent regions, to the distance of many miles. It cannot be supposed, however, that this single channel is at all adequate to the discharge of such a prodigious body of water ; yet the lake seldom rises, even in the spring season, more than three feet above its ordinary level ; so that it appears probable that part of it may be absorbed by some subterraneous drain. The water of the Baikal is so clear, that at the depth of eight fathoms the bottom is distinctly seen ; yet at a distance it assumes a greenish hue. It is very agreeable to the taste, except in the month of July, when it is thrown into a kind of fermenta tion, called its flowering, which renders itirtmewhat nauseous, and gives it a turbid appearance, as if mixed with yellow sand.