THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY. 243 



pavlovsk, Omsk, Kaiiisk, Tomsk, Mariiusk, Achinsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kausk, Udiusk and Bala- 

 gansk to Irkutsk. It will thus, throughout its whole extent, meet all the chief administrative 

 and trading centres of Siberia, will nowhere quit the zone of densest population and will 

 traverse almost exclusively the fertile chernoziom tract, from the Volga to the Yenisei. The 

 constuction of the southern line might he accomplished in separate sections, each of which 

 might he completed independently of the rest, preserving its own proper Importance ». 



The route quoted of the Siberian railway indicated by the engineer Ostrovsky deserves 

 attention in this respect that it almost exactly coincides with that which is now finally 

 adopted for the Great Siberian Railway. 



The engineer Sidensner, who took part in the expedition for carrying out the surveys 

 in connection with the construction of the Obi-Yenisei canal, expressed the opinion that with 

 the realization of this work and the removal of the rapids in the lower part of the Angara 

 a vast water way would be opened of 5,000 versts extent, from Tinmen to Baikal. Next from 

 Baikal begins the coast road to Sretensk of 950 versts; and there again, a new water way 

 by the Amour for 3,000 versts. Discussing in detail the cart road, Sidensner draws the con- 

 clusion that as a matter of fact it may be considerably shortened, as the first 150 versts 

 pass by the shore of Baikal and the valley of the navigable river Serenga, and the last 350 

 versts along the shore of the raftable river Ingoda and in part of the Shilka. Thus, the road 

 is reiluced to 450 versts, and even here, from the happy direction of many shallow rivers 

 which can easily be made navigable, there only remains the pass across the Yablonovoi range 

 from the Areisk Lake to the settlement of Tangiusk, a distance of 18 versts; and only over 

 this small section will it l)e necessary to build a railway to unite by a water route the 

 basin of the Volga with the Pacific shore of Siberia. The proposition to carry out surveys in this 

 direction, although met with favour, in consequence of the want of means could not be accepted. 



Yet many more schemes were presented, which were discussed both in Government 

 spheres and in scientific societies, but the majority of them suffered from a lack of actual 

 foundation. Special commissions were organized in the Imperial Russian Technical Society 

 and in the Society for Promoting Russian Trade and Industry, which laboured very long upon 

 the consideration of the questions of the route and cost of the Siberian Railway, but to write 

 about all the schemes placed before these meetings, would take up very much time; they 

 fill books. The principal directions are marked upon the map appended to this work, omitting 

 the variations whose name is legion. 



Independently of the schemes proposed by private persons, several Governors-General 

 of Siberia began vehemently to urge the necessity of building different sections of the line. 

 Among these petitions, particularly noteworthy are the schemes for sections of the way from 

 Tomsk to Irkutsk and from liaikal to Sretensk put forth by Baruu Korf and Count Ignatiev, 

 intended to unite the Western Siberian navigation with that of Eastern Siberia on the Amour. 

 To these two sections a third was soon added, from Vladivostok through Razdolnoe, Ni- 

 kolskoe, and Anuchino to the Busse Post. The surveys carried out in these directions only 

 touched the technical side of the matter, leaving the economical entirely aside; in consequence 

 of which in 1887 it was not considered possible to proceed to the preparatory works for the 

 carrying out of the schemes referred to. An exception was made only in reference to the 



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