The Angara is cold as ice all the summer through, so cold, indeed, that to bathe in it is to court inevitable illness, and in winter a sled drive over its frozen surface is made in a temperature some degrees lower than that prevailing on the banks. This comes from the fact that its waters are fresh from the yet unfathomed depths of the Baikal, which during the five short months of summer has scarcely time to properly unfreeze. In winter the lake resembles in all respects a miniature Arctic Ocean, having its great ice hummocks and immense leads, over which the caravan sleds have to be ferried on large pieces of ice, just as in the frozen North. In winter, too, the air is so cold in the region above the lake that birds flying across its icy bosom sometimes drop down dead on the surface. Some authors say that seals have been caught in the lake of the same character as those found in the Arctic seas; for this assertion I have no proof. An immense caravan traffic is carried across the frozen lake every season between Russia and China.

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