Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VII. On the Middle Lena
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
North of Vitim the villages, originally established by
command to serve as posting-stations, became smaller and
smaller. Now for the first time we began to hear the
Yakut language, which was to sound in our ears for several
months, Yakuts now and then increasing the number of
the third-class passengers.
The wild beauty and overpowering majesty of the great
Lena here reigns supreme. On the rivers and in the forests
of the far north of Europe your individuality finds, so to
speak, a support in the constant change of scenery; but
here it is suppressed by the monotonous, endless wilderness,
and the solemn grandeur of the vast river. You steam on
day after day, night after night, for hundreds of miles in
the same direction, ever further and further away from
civilisation, and nearer and nearer to the eternal domain
of the polar ice. In this vast wilderness the “Mother
Lena” with its ever-growing proportions and mightiness,
forms the pièce de resistance. In its serene depth all is
mirrored. Here a cyclopean wall of immense blocks of
sandstone has been reared by primeval forces; there a
colossal mass of rock overhangs the water, into which it
would fall were it not sustained by a row of strange and
gigantic pillars of the same material. Here beneath a huge
perpendicular cliff a whirlpool is ever moving in its eternal
circle; while yonder are seen cathedrals with innumerable
spires and pinnacles, or ruins of fairy castles of greyish
and white limestone. Columns of magnificent larch-trees
and Siberian pines stand in the ravines and valleys like
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
