mbering, and broad-beamed boats, intended only for the conveyance of
merchandise, and terribly unclean. The tarantas were hauled up on their
decks, and after a night of peril, when a sudden hurricane put to the
test their solidity and staying qualities, they effected the transit of
the lake in safety. The "Holy Sea," as the natives call it, is the third
largest lake in Asia--about 400 miles in length, and varying in breadth
from nineteen miles to seventy. Though fed by numerous streams it has
only one outlet, the Angara, a tributary of the Yenisei. Lying deep
among the Baikal mountains, an offshoot of the Altai, it presents some
vividly coloured and very striking scenery. Its fisheries are valuable.
In the great chain of communication between Russia and China it holds an
important place, and of late years its navigation has been conducted by
steamboats. An interesting account of it will be found in Mr. T. W.
Atkinson's "Oriental and Western Siberia."

* * * * *

Irkutsk was very pleasant to our travellers after their long experience
of the desert. Once more they found themselves within the generous
influences of civilization. Though possessing not more than 23,000
inhabitants, it is a busy and a lively town; and here, as at Kiakhta,
the number of exiles gives a certain tone and elevation to the social
circle. Here Madame de Baluseck parted company. M. and Madame de
Bourboulon, resuming their journey, pressed forward with such alacrity
that, in the space of ten hours, they sometimes accomplished 127 versts,
though this rate of speed must necessarily have told heavily on the
strength of Madame de Bourboulon. The fatigue she endured brought on the
sleep of exhaustion, which almost resembles catalepsy. "We arrived," she
writes, "at eight in the morning on the banks of the Tenisci;
immediately the horses were taken out and forced into the ferry-boat, in
spite of their desperate resistance--I did not stir. My carriage was
lifted up and hauled on board by dint of sheer physical strength, fifty
men being required for the work, and singing their loudest to inspirit
their efforts--I heard nothing. On the boat the ropes rattled through
the pulleys and the iron chains of the capstans, while the master
directed the movements of his crew by sharp blasts on his whistle--I
continued to sleep; in fine, by an ordinary effect of the profoundest
sleep, I awakened only when silence succeeded to this uproar."