42 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Immigrants Waiting for the Amur to Rise 



two or three thousand people, 

 and is the head of steamboat 

 navigation. Pleasantly loca- 

 ted, it has all the appearance 

 of one of our frontier towns. 



Saturday, July 2j. — There 

 was a sharp frost this morning. 

 I am told that the thermometer 

 shows 60 to 70 degrees below 

 zero here in the winter. Left 

 Stretensk by rail at 9.45 a. m. ; 

 have been riding all day up the 

 valley of the Shilka and then 

 the Ingoda. The views are 

 very pretty, the country a 

 superb one now ; fine farms, ex- 

 cellent cattle and many of them, 

 and good grazing. Everything 

 looks like June here. 



Sunday, July 28. — All day 

 we have been passing through 

 a fine country, with frequent 

 villages, good-looking farms, 

 and one city, Chita, a place of 

 22,000 people. Will enter the 

 Yablonoi Mountains tonight. 



Monday, July 29. — Weather 

 very cold this morning. We 

 are in the western foothills, 

 and the water in the little river 

 by the side of which the track 

 runs is flowing westward to 

 Lake Baikal. The soil is light 

 and sandy, and the prevailing 

 trees are pine. Later we come 

 into the country of the Buriats, 

 a pastoral people, formerly 

 Mongols, with the Chinese fea- 

 tures, queue, and dress, except 

 that the} 7 wear round hats with 

 turned-up brims. The coun- 

 try here is fine. 



Tuesday, July jo. — Arrived 

 at Lake Baikal. Weather rainy 

 and lake rough. It is a large 

 body of water, said to be about 

 50 miles wide and 400 miles 

 long, and very deep, in some 

 places 4, 500 feet. As far as we 

 could see, the shores are bold 

 and rocky. Reached Irkutsk, 



Milk and Bread Sellers on the Amur 



