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                  独处荒寒的贝加尔湖

                         Timeless Solitude of Lake Baikal  

      Lake Baikal, the 'Pearl of Sibetia', is a crystal-clear body of the bluest water. When the famous Russian philosopher Bierkayev said that the nation has a soule of black wine, he probably refered to the great lake. In fact, it's drinkably pure, surrounded by rocky, tree-covered cliffs and so vast that one can sail for hours without the mountain backdrops becoming appreciably closer.

      Shaped like a banana, Lake Baikal —636km from north to south, but only 60km wide —was formed by rifting tectonic plates. Though nearly 8km of the rift is fillede with sediment, it is gradually getting deeper as the plates seperate. It will eventually become the earth's fifth ocean, splitting the Asian contiment. In the meanwhile it's the world's deepest lake: 1637m  near the western shore. It is so of deeply beauty that a metaphor haunts me often —Lake Baikal is just like a great Goet-typed church upside down into the ground. As such, it contains nearly one-fifth of the world's fresh, unfrozen water — more than North America's five Great lakes combined.

       Lake Baikal also has its own special history of humanities.For instance, once upon a time in 19th century, some famouse Decembrists lived and worked here,  and much earlier than that, a Chinese official named Suwu, who had been sent on commission by the Emperor of Han Danasty, was kept here as a herdsman of sheep. At that time, Lake Baikal was called Beihai Sea in our Chinese classics. Areas around the lake and of whole Siberia have been famouse for exiles. Though the Siberian exile system wa abolished at the turn of the 20th century, but Stalin brought it back with a vengeance. It was during his rule that Siberia became synonymous with death. For all the reasons, Lake Baikal has the quality to be selected a cultural as well bas natural heritage of the world.

      And the wildlife is unique.Thanks to warm water entering from vents in the bottom of the lake, and the filtering action of countless millions of minute crustaceans called epishura, the water is exceptionally bclear and pure. Over 1000 species of plants and animals live in the lake, nearly all endemic, including 200 of shrimp and 80 of flatworm. One of the latter is the world's largest and eats fish. Uniquely for a deep lake, life exists right down to the bottom.

The many kinds of fish include the endemic omul, Baikal's mian commercial fish. A remarkable bspecies, the omul is reputed to emit a shrill cry when caught. It spawns in the Selenga River, but its main food source is the endemic Baikal alga,nmelosira. The golomyanka, a pink, translucent oilfish with large pectorial fines, is the lake's most common fish as well as endemic, by day it lives in the deep, dark depths, rising at night to near the surface. Golomyanka is the preferred food of the Baikal seal, the world's only freshwater seal, with no relatives nearer than the ringed seal of the Arctic and at the top of the food chain.

       There is plenty of other wildlife around the lake. The huge delta, nearly 40km wide, formed by the sediment brought down to the lake by the Selenga River, is a great attraction to wild fowl and wading birds. In summer such beautiful and rare species as the Asiatic Dowitcher and White-wingled black tern nest there, while in autumn vast numbere of waterfowl from the north use the mudflats and marshes to rest and feed on their migration south — a sort of international bird airport — while many overwinter there, too.