ON A VOLCANO The following evening we arrived at Khathyl, a small Russian settlement of ten scattered houses in the valley of the Egingol or Yaga, which here takes its waters from the Kosogol half a mile above the village.

The Kosogol is a huge Alpine lake, deep and cold, eighty-five miles in length and from ten to thirty in width.

On the western shore live the Darkhat Soyots, who call it Hubsugul, the Mongols, Kosogol.

Both the Soyots and Mongols consider this a terrible and sacred lake.

It is very easy to understand this prejudice because the lake lies in a region of present volcanic activity, where in the summer on perfectly calm sunny days it sometimes lashes itself into great waves that are dangerous not only to the native fishing boats but also to the large Russian passenger steamers that ply on the lake.