A LAKE NEARLY A MILE DEEP.
By far the deepest lake known in the world is Lake Baikal, in Siberia, which is every way comparable to the great American lakes as regards size, for while its area is over 9,000 square miles, making it about equal to Lake Erie in superficial extent, its enormous depth, of between 4,000 and 4,500 feet, makes the volume of its waters almost equal to that of Lake Superior. Although its surface is 1,350 feet above the sea level, its bottom is nearly 3,000 feet below it. The Caspian Lake, or sea, as it is usually called, has a depth in its southern basin of over 3,000 feet. Lake Maggiore is 3,000 feet deep; Lake Como, nearly 2,000 feet, and Legodi-Garda, another Italian lake, has a depth in certain places of 1,900 feet. Lake Constance is over 1,000 feet deep, and Huron and Michigan reach depths of 900 and 1,000 feet.