Note 1 — Chapter XXVI · ACROSS LAKE BAIKAL TO TROITZKOSAVSK.

As we approached Telma my thermometer at noon in the shade stood at 85°, and when crossing a stream called the Ija, the temperature of the water was 70°; but coming on the same day to the Angara, nearly 100 miles from Baikal, the temperature of the river was only 50°; and when crossing the Baikal itself, the atmosphere registered 45° and the water only 40°. The Angara is the last river in Siberia to close, which it does about New Year’s Day (sometimes not till the middle of January); and the first to open, namely, about the 11th April. The lake is 1,200 feet above the sea level, and the current of the river is remarkably swift, as the traveller will infer should he overtake a barge being towed against the stream by perhaps 20 horses. Though the distance is only 40 miles from Irkutsk, a barge takes three days to be dragged up to the rapid, and then for the rapid itself it requires another day, even with double the number of horses. This refers, however, to a large soudno, or vessel, with a bluff bow and broad stern, which might almost as well sail sideways as speed ahead, and usually carries 600 chests and 25,000 bricks of tea.