Coldest City in the World
The coldest city in the world is said to be Yakutsk, in Eastern Siberia. It is the great commercial emporium of East Siberia, and the capital of the Province of Yakutsk, which in most of its area of 1,517,063 square miles is a bare desert, the soil of which is frozen to a great depth. Yakutsk consists of about 400 houses of European structure, standing apart. The intervening spaces are occupied by winter “yoorts,” or huts of the northern nomads, with earthern roofs, doors covered with hairy hides, and windows of ice. Caravans with Chinese and European goods collect the produce of the whole line of coast on the Polar Sea between the parallels of 70 and 74 degrees, from the mouth of the River Lena to the furthest point inhabited by the Chookchees. A colporteur of the British and Foreign Bible Society last year made a tour of eleven weeks down the Lena, which is 3,000 miles in length, visiting Yakuts, and selling gospels in their own language to the Yakuts in the villages along the banks of the river.—Christian Work.