B A I 



alreatly conjectured ; and if tliis be admitttxl, it is far from 

 improbable, that, in heavy gales, the wind furioully rufhing 

 through thefe vents, may lift them from their holes into the 

 upper water, where, unacciiftomed to the outward air, they 

 cannot long furvive this change of place. The (huals that 

 are call aflioic are partly devoured by the fea-fuwls, and 

 partly boiled to oil by the inhabitants of the ftrand, which 

 is faid to be very fine ard well tailed; at kail it mull be fo 

 to the Chineft, who buy it in great quantities. 



Another particularity, at leail to tlie Baikal, are the por- 

 pufes. As they elfi where only live in fait water, and never 

 travel far up the rivers, it is the more furprifing how they 

 came into this frefh-water lake, which has no communication 

 Avith the fea, nor with any river that contains thefe animals. 

 Though the firft furmife may fall on the YenifTey and the 

 Angara, yet in neither of thofe rivers are any ot them, now 

 at leall, to be found, and it would be extremely difficult for 

 them to fhoot the catarafts on the pafTagc from the Yeiiii'ley 

 to the Baikal. Perhaps in fome great inundation, the 

 fources of the Lena might have communicated with the 

 rivers of the Baikal; and en that occafion the primitive 

 race of them might have ftrayed hither. They are of the 

 fame fpecies with thofe of the Cafpian and the Baltic; ex- 

 cepting that fcarcely any of them are of varied hues. They 

 are particularly fond of the ice; and fhew thcmfelves above 

 water rather in the winter than in the fnmmer; for which pur- 

 pofethey blowupof themfelves air-holes in the ice, which they 

 havethe art of keeping con ftantly open; and in the fprirg drop 

 their young upon the ice, for whofe accommodation they 

 make little huts of fnow. The feafon for the chace of them 

 lails from the beginning of March to the breaking up of the 

 ice at the latter end of May; the right of catching them is 

 farmed out. They are (hot with fire-arms or pierced with 

 javelins; in both cafes from a concealment behind a fcreen 

 of white linen, which the animals miilake for a piece of ice. 

 The old ones are made to yield their blubber; but the young 

 are chiefly fought after becaufe the Chinefe are extremely 

 partial to their fiber grey fliins. In the carrion, the 

 Buraets fhare with the crows. The annual capture is 

 cftimattd at between 1500 and 2000 of thefe animals. 



The omul (falmo migratorius) is a fifh of great confe- 

 quence, in regard to its prodigious numbers, not only to the 

 Baikal, but to all the country round. His ordinary length 

 is from fourteen to fixteen inches; fcldom extending to two 

 foot. His fledi is white and tender, and fo dehcate that he 

 dies as foon as taken out of the water, even though imme- 

 diately thrown in again. In Augufl, the omuls generally 

 begin to advance in iTioals of various bulk, in order to afcend 

 the rivers in which they fpawn. In September they return, 

 but in fo emaciated a condition, that multitudes die upon 

 the paffage. They do not go up every river; thofe on the 

 wellcrn lid,: not at all, and c\,;n not everyone on the eaftern 

 fide of the lake. Each fifli is wont to go to fpawn in the 

 place where itfeif received life. They are caught the whole 

 fummer long; but moftly at the time of their flioaling in the 

 rivers. With fmall nets 2000 of them are taken at a draught. 

 They are thrown together in great heaps upon the fhore; 

 but ere the fiftiermen have time to prepare them, the Tun- 

 gufes, the dogs, and the birds of prey, have devoured a good 

 part of them. The omuls are faked, oil is obtained from 

 them, and even fome caviar, which however will keep only a 

 Ycrv (bort time. Befides thefe, the Baikal produces many 

 ether forts of fifn; fuch as fturgeou, quabs, carp, perch, 

 tench, trouts, pike, &c. in great abundance. 



One rer^ fingular natural phenomenon of the Baikal we 

 have referved to the lall, as being probably the original 

 taufe of the cxillencc of the lake itlclf ; wc mean the earth- 



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quakes that are ver)' frequent in the parts adjacent. They 

 are mod ufual in the fpring and aiaumn ; generally once, 

 fometimes twice a year. The fhoeks are not violent, lall 

 a few minutes, and do fcarcely any milchief. At kail the 

 utmoft injury that attended any one of the fixteen earth- 

 quakes defcribed by profcffor Georgi, was, that it gently 

 waked hiin cut of his fltep, threw down the ftovt in the 

 police-office at Seliiigiiiflv, and flio (k ofi' fome of the crolfes 

 from the tops of the church-ftceples. Nature feemslo liave 

 exhaufted 1 erfelf in forming the bed of the Baikal ; for it is 

 highly probable that it was the effeft of lome Iremci.dous 

 earthquake, attended by an extraoidinary ialling-in of t'e 

 earth. We are naturally led to this hypothcfis by confider- 

 ing thellale of the circumjacent region, and of the bottom 

 of the lake. This latter confiUing of fragments of demo- 

 lifhed rocks, the largell of which thruil up their tops as 

 iflands; the coaft around is one amazing congeries ot rent, 

 broken, and fplit rocks, to the height generallv of forty 

 fathoms; Ihaltered portions of rocks lift their bare fu-rmiits 

 to the clouds, while the other parts of them lie rooted in 

 the heart of the ea -th. On the craggy pinnacles of fome of 

 the fnow-covered mountains lie broken tops of rocks in the 

 fhape of bce-hiv-3, which only the powerful hard of nature 

 could have projected thither; as it was flie who fenced the 

 Baikal round with majeflic cliffs, and fixed their bafes in un- 

 fathomable pit--. But when? — Hiftor)' is filent. — And how? 

 — The naturahft can only conjefture; he has recourfe to an 

 earthquake, 'nnd imagines, that here perhaps f rmcrly the 

 flreams of the Upper Angara flowed, the territory whereof 

 is now ingulfed by the brrad lake. 



The country round the Baikal forms a part of the govern- 

 ment of Irkutlk, and belongs chiefly to the province of 

 Nertfliinflc. Irkutfl< lies at the diflance of about 50 miles 

 well wards from the Baikal. The inhabitants of the confines 

 of the lake are Tungufes, Bura:ts, and Mongoles; the 

 Ruffians are lefs numerous, becaufe the land adjacent to it is 

 not favourable to agriculture; though even on the eailcrn 

 fide winter-rye, oats, and barley thrive tolerably well. Tlie 

 whole of the population on the eallern fide of the lake, from 

 Turkal to the Upper Angara, amounted, in 1771, to not 

 more than 5000 fouls. 



Befides the numerous birds of prey that feek their food 

 in the neighbouring forells, multitudes of winged guefls are 

 attrafted hither by the exuberant ftores of hiTi with which 

 the lake abounds. Thefe confill of the various tribes of 

 mews and herns; but more numerous than all are the gulls, 

 in fize refembling a full grown duck, but incomparably 

 heavier. They come in the month of April, and take their 

 departure in OAober. Every thing bears marks of their 

 devadation; the very trees in whicli they rood perifh, partly 

 by their corrofive dung, and partly in confeqnence of their 

 biting off the buds. They are faid to confume more than, 

 one half of the omuls that go up the rivers. This may be 

 thought furprifing after what has been before obferved of 

 the prodigious quantities of thefe fifh ; not however fo alto- 

 gether incredible, when we are informed that thefe fowls 

 hatch about ten young ones at a brood, and are extremely 

 voracious. Not content with eating their fill, they overload 

 themfelves in fuch a manner, that beneath the rocks where 

 they nellle, the foxes, ermines, magpies, and crows con- 

 flantly find a plentiful banquet. In many places the nelts 

 of them are fo numerous, that the people have much ado ta 

 pafs along the rocks. The ifles in the found between 01- 

 chon and the main land, being the principal haunt of thefe 

 birds, take their name from them. 



The foreils arc overrun with quadrupeds. Wolves and 

 bears roara there ia great abundance ; but the latter at lead 



are 



