Lee Ann Redmond, Age 10, Of Bellevue, Wash., for her question:

Was there always a water way between Russia and Alaska?

The story of the earth dates back some four billion years  and it is a very changeable story. For one thing, the sea has invaded the land many times. During the ice ages, masses of the earth's water were frozen in solid glaciers and the sea leve1 was much lower. In many places where the sea is shallow, the water drained away during the ice ages leaving stretches of dry land..

In the remote past, the shallow sea between Russia and Alaska may have drained away, leaving a bridge of dry land between the old world and the new. Most likely, the first Indians took this route to America thousands of years ago. Animals, too, may have trotted back and forth across this land bridge in the distant past.