Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

BUILDING OF THE TRAIN-FERRY “BAIKAL.” 69 THE DAY BEFORE THE LAUNCH. (W- 4-) Owing to the land sloping downwards from the water’s edge, the shore end of the launching ways had to be raised several feet above the ground, as this illustration shows. the lake before the end of 1898 ; so the only course left was to use barges down the river Yenisei to a point near Yeniseisk, where it joins the swift-flowing and turbulent Angara, the main outlet from Lake Baikal. By this route a large proportion of the material was taken ; but it proved to be a so nearly im- possible task, and occupied so much time and labour, that the railway had arrived at the lake before many of the parts had left Kras- noyarsk. The first consignment, previously mentioned as having left before the writer’s arrival, showed the Russians the difficulties they had to overcome, and suggested what mode of procedure to adopt with the barges that had to follow. It may be of interest to mention here that the Angara is one of the swiftest-flowing rivers in the world. It has a drop of 400 feet between Lake Baikal and Irkutsk—a distance of about 60 versts—and its exit from the lake is so The Angara River. is so great swift that for a considerable distance it has never been known to freeze ; and many dan- gerous and almost impassable rapids have to be encounteréd between Irkutsk and where it joins the Yenisei on its way to the Polar Ocean. Its rapidity that its waters are far below freezing point before any ice begins to form. The Angara’s most remarkable feature, however, is that it actually begins to freeze on the bed before it congeals at the surface—that is to say, it freezes from the bottom upwards, the current being swifter at the surface than at the bottom. In midsummer its waters are always icy cold ; but by way of compensation its beautiful scenery far excels that of any other Russian waterway. The river is a very winding one, and the distance from where it joins the Yenisei to its exit from the lake is 1,700 versts. The most