The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-04-02
CROSSING LAKE BAIKAL.
RUSSIA,S GREAT INLAND SEA IN
 WAR TIME.

How the Journey Was Made Intens
 Cold From Which the Soldiers sufe
 fcred-R.s, House in the Middle of
 the Laks-Food supplies of Eastern
 siberia.
 Lake BailkaI, the frozen barrier that cuts the great Siberian line in two, is indeed a remarkable body of water, says the London Express. Tn length it would stretch from London to Esdin- burgh, yet it's breadth is only from twenty to fifty-three miles. From where stood to the town of Bailxal, on the other side. was a little over forty miles: but it is this distance. over the frozen floor of which stores and men have to be transported to the front, that will cause the Russian Government more trouble and anxiety than the en- tire route from the Ural Mountains to Port Arthur.
 The track has not yet been completed around the end of the lake. As an en- gineer explained to me the southern end route for the line is imbedded in mountains. Sheer granite cliffs rise from the surface of the water to a height of 1,500 feet. Through these cliffs tunnels to the number of twenty seven are being laboriously cut, but in my engineer friends opinion it will be long before this strip of rails will be opened.
 During the summer two great steam CTS cross the lake with the trains on board, but in the winter the ice is far too thick for the Baikal or her consort, which I saw firmly anchored in the ice. There was a great rush for the sledges which awaited us. With some difficulty I secured place in one, and with all the wraps I possessed about l me started on my ride. Once out on | the lake, however, there came upon us steady, piercing blast that seemed to penetrate my furs as if they were so much paper.
 had never suffered so intensely from cold in my life before; indeed, for five minutes I was almost insensible. And | yet the cruel gale was at my back, and the long lines of troops packed in the sledges met it face to face.
 l It was a curious spectacle, this end Hess advance of the Russian reinforce ments across this arctic sea. The route was staked out by telegraph posts placed about two hundred yards apart. As we swung along at good eight miles an hour, our driver grooming to the horses an old chant, the advancing sleighs seemed to mount into hundreds land even thousands.
 In those carrying troops, six men were crowded into a sleigh built for three How they were able to endure that terrible weather passed my under standing. They wore their greatcoats, Fit is true, but other wraps were few among them.
 Sometimes I met an empty sleigh with it's soldier passengers tramping lalong by it's side striving to warm their frozen limbs. Blue with cold and ut terly miserable they seemed, and when a Russian with whom I travelled as- lsured me that many of them must be badly frostbitten or even die from ex- posture before they reached the other side could not but believe him.
 On the outside track moved the pro- Ivision and store sleighs, the majority with five horses apiece, dragging slowly forward in long lines. I saw several sledges with rails sticking out behind them, but at that time (Feb. 15) there was no sign of any railway track being laid across the ice. If such a feat has been accomplished, it must have been at a later date than was announced in the Russian Press,
 The surface of the ice was very ir- Irregular and uneven. In places there were foot wide crevasses and Assures, while here and there the ice had risen into hammocks, which nearly jared me lout of my sleigh. Despite the wind, there was around us a curious driving mist that hid the distances.
 After two and half hours we sighted Ithe great rest house, of wood and felt and brick that is built yearly in the mid dle of the lake. A very palace it seemed to us weary travellers. Not until after two plates of soup and some steanine coffffee could I find my legs and feet again. Yet the poor soldiers passed il by, making no break in their journey from shore to shore.
 It was with lingering regret that l left the hospitable rest-house and again disappeared beneath my wraps. But even the crossing of Lake Baikal comes to an end some time, and about six hours after I had started I arrived at the little town where my journey was to recommence.
 More troop trains and ever more met us as we passed westward. After my second day the soldiers that they car ried changed in type They were nc longer young recruits, but the reserves we'll built, middle aged men, who be-
 haved themselves as veterans should
 For the first time I noticed cannon each train having two trucks containing
 one gun apiece fastened behind it.
 In the whole course of my journey saw no horse being hurried for ward
 though I understood that there were
 several thousand expected.
 War pieces were beginning to be fel at the buffets where we halted for oul
 meals. The peasants had long ceased to bring in fresh supplies, and the cos
 of necessaries steadily rose. BreaC : doubled, sugar and coffee trebled. A the same time I noticed in sidings tn, ordinary trains of commerce lying hal