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BOUNDLESS NATURE
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On our small planet, there are few places left where nature is still in its virgin
state. Siberia, especially the Baikal Region, is no doubt one of such areas:
Siberia is an "unknown planet" for the world tourism. One can even get
the impression that the world community knows more about the Moon than about Siberia.
And Baikal, the greatest freshwater lake in the world that is situated in the
middle of Siberia, is as much mysterious and enigmatic. Siberia is a part of the
Russian Federation consisting of a few federal regions. Irkutsk region is lucky
in that its eastern borders are washed by the sacred waters of Lake Baikal. Here,
one can find endless taiga forests (some say, the largest in the world) with practically
no people inhibiting them, mountain ranges with never -melting snow on the peaks,
forests, dunes, steppe, and marshes:
Lake Baikal is a real magnet for tourists. It is so unbelievably huge and deep
that one can hardly call it a lake. 600km long, 80km wide, and 1.6 km (!) deep,
it covers an area equivalent in size to a quarter of England. It contains 20%
of the planet's fresh-water resources. According to the scientists, the water
quality is a standard for drinking water. Along the whole shore -line , with the
exception of the large settlement's beaches, you can drink it directly from the
lake without boiling and you can be sure you never get any infection or upset
stomach. Scuba-divers get amazed at the exceptional purity and clarity of the
water in Lake Baikal. 80% of the animal and plant species in Lake Baikal are endemic,
which means you cannot find them anywhere else in the world. The scientists are
still unable to answer the question of how the Baikal nerpa (seals) got into this
fresh-water reservoir, 3,500 km from the nearest ocean. There was even a hypothesis
once about an underground cannel connecting Lake Baikal and the Artic Ocean. Golomyanka,
a small viviparous fish, which contains about 30% fat, abounds at a great depth
of the lake These fishes are almost transparent so that one could read a newspaper
through them. And they are only two of the hundreds of Baikal's wonders!
By Sergey Vyhara
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