Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1904-03-02
|BAIKAL BEARS
GREATEST FOE
Great Body Of Water the Worst Oh.
stacle the Russians Have to ov.
ercome in Present War.
WEAK LINK OF A WEAK CHAIN"
Trans-siberian Railway a Makeshift
at Best and Lake Baikal Great.
ly. Lessons Its Value.

War Is a great teacher of geog-
raphy. Its fires light up distant reg
ions of which the average man knows
little. Cities. rivers and mountains Of
whose exact places on the map the
newspaper reader had only a vague
idea become fixed points under the
Illuminating reports of war.
Ten days ago the majority of
Americans had the dimmest eoncep.
tion OF the precise position Of Korea.
OF its ports they knew nothing. by
the time the war ends they will be
readably familiar with the geography
of northeastern Asia.
1t is a matter OF common knowledge
that there is a transsiberian railway,
and that on it Russia must depend
for the transportation of troops ami
supplies from the European part Of
the empire to the far east. 1t is not
generally known that the continuity
of that road is broken and its mill
tary value lessened by the existence
of Lake Baikal, which is described
in an interesting article on the sub.
ject in Golfers Weekly as the weak.
est link in a rather weak chain" OF
transportation between Russia and
the Pacific ocean,.
Ialya Daiba1 &c mn pnnon hnly NJ
water. 1t is the largest fresh water
lake in the old world, with the ex.
ception of the Victoria Nyanza. 1t is
1898 miles long from north to south,
from Is to 81 miles wide, and has an
area Of nearly 1 $1,000 square miles. It
is smaller than lake superior, Michi-
gan or Huron, but is larger than eth.
Ter of the other two great lakes. As
1.-THE Dead Sea is notable because its
surface is below ocean level. Lake
Baikal Is notable because its surface
is 1866 feet above e level and the
bottom is 1,624 feet below 1t. giving
the lake the extraordinary depth III
3.185 feet.
The railroad, when completed, will
make a detour around the southern
end of the lake. AS the country to be
traversed Is mountainous and much
tunneling will be required, work on
that section has been pushed slowly,
and cars laden with passengers and
freight are taken across the lake in
great ferry boats. Fairly good SER
vice can be had in summer. though
sudden and violent storms sweep the
lake at times and make navigation
hazardous. In winter il Is impossi-
BILE.
The lake lies so far north and at
such a height above the ocean that
it begins to freeze in November, AMI
by the beginning or middle of Decem-
Der Is frozen over to a depth of nine
and a half feet, and remains ice
bound for about five months. The
Russian government encouraged by
the success of ice breakers it has used
in the Baltic and White seas, bought
an immense one for use on Lake Bal
kal, but il was practically a failure.
III IL were not for one insurmoun.-
able difficulty 1t would be easy to lay
rails on the ice and run light trains
/ uul ll6 Hllu lllCl VI W OI6dlllLt q
ksledge service across it. Unfortunate
ly ~crevices from three to six feet
wide and two-thirds OF a mile in
length are continually opening. When
they close they pile up the ice along
their course in almost impossible
hummocks.
The story that three Russian regi.
ments were drowned while crossing
the lake because of the ice opening
flor a distance of 200 yards is contra
dicted from st. Petersburg. 1t is
something that might have happened
on q small scale il the Russians. anS-
ious to get reinforcements through 10
the seat of war. had sent soldiers In
large bodies on the perilous journey
across the lake. Nor is IL altogether
impossible that some soldiers lost
their way in a snow storm while
crossing the lake and were frozen to
death. The thermometer in that reg.
ion often drops to 35 or 40 degrees be-
low Fahrenheit zero in December and
January, and the weather is not much
milder in February.
II the United States were carrying
on war in the Rocky mountains. II 1t
had to send men and provisions over
one insufficiently equipped, poorly
constructed, single track railroad,
which was bisected by Lake Michi-
gan, and IL the lake were SO blocked
with ice that il could be crossed only
with the greatest difficulty, the gov
eminent would be almost as badly
| - a., D..gafa L. -AH D,,safA
has millions of men and unlimited
~stores Of supplies. The problem is
to get them to Manchuria. Lake Bal.
kal breaks the line of communication
and will continue to do SO for months