Lake Baikal was still completely frost-bound, and looked beautiful glittering in the morning sunlight, with snow-capped mountains enclosing it on every side. The only disappointment about Lake Baikal is that the mountains are too distant to look really grand and awe-inspiring. The steamer which plies on the lake during the summer from Baikal station was still lying close alongside it. Turning westward almost immediately after leaving it, the railway line follows the course of the river Angara for about one and a half hours, till it reaches Irkutsk, the present seat of government. Irkutsk was a trading town founded in 1652, but was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1879. It is striking in appearance as one approaches it by the long railway bridge across the river, and is finely situated, with an imposing railway station. As we crossed the bridge we saw the fine bridge of boats used in summer still lying alongside the bank in its winter quarters, for large masses of loose ice floated past, blocking the river. But although Irkutsk has a certain comeliness of appearance, and is the centre of intellectual activity in Siberia, it is not altogether a desirable place to live in, for not only is the climate trying, but report says that it is imprudent for any one to go about unarmed. The great prisons in the neighbourhood of Irkutsk have for generations been the place where the worst criminals of the Empire, as well as political exiles have been sent, and when their term of service has expired they are let loose on the community, the only regulation being that they shall remain there. The result is that the present population contains not only the present released convicts, but also a considerable number of the descendents of former convicts of the worst type.