Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VIII. The Province of Yakutsk
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long-drawn-out moanings and howlings, with now and
again a sudden thunder as of a cannonade, from the
bursting ice and the rending of the frozen earth.
In the lakes which do not freeze to the bottom, the
ice attains a thickness of 10 feet; in the rivers still more.
The ice becomes as hard as stone, its splinters cut the
hands like a knife, and if a hard-tempered axe is directed
against the stem of a tree its edge breaks into fragments.
The terror of the Yakut winter is increased by its
darkness, especially in the northern regions, where the
winter night continues for weeks and months. Only in the
month of March do “the horns of the bull of winter begin
to break,” as the Yakuts say in their picturesque language.
The sun rises higher and higher every day, its rays in the
clear air begin to melt the snow on the roofs of houses,
while in the shadow the temperature still marks twenty
degrees below zero.
In March and April terrible storms prevail. The
transition between winter and summer is so sudden that one can
hardly speak of spring and autumn. In a couple of weeks
the winter is transformed into summer. The snow melts
with incredible rapidity, and the water, flowing into valleys,
lakes, and rivers, lifts the thick ice, which has been riven
into small fragments by the winter cold. In the lakes the
ice melts slowly, and the storms which drive it against
the shore only crush it little by little. In the rivers, on
the other hand, the ice is violently broken up and carried
towards the sea by the powerful spring-floods. At first
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