THE GEE AT SIBERIAN EAILWAY. 253 



instead of separate headlands, high rocky slopes, some 10 versts long, descend into the river 

 these slopes are to he used for carrying the railroad track. 



On account of the local features which have been described there is a verv consider- 

 able amount of earth work to be done in the Mysovsk-Sretensk section. The total quantity 

 amounts to 2,032,000 cubic sagenes, or 2,014 per verst, and the cost of it is estimated at 

 8,859,000 roubles. The deepest excavagations are 16.62 sagenes, and the highest embankments 

 10 . 87 sagenes. Almost all the cuts in the valleys of the Ingoda and Shilka rivers, and 

 many of those on the remaining portion of the line, will have to be hewn out of hard, rocky 

 formations, so that out of 500,000 cubic sagenes excavations, 300,000 hav^ to be cut out of 

 rocky gi'ound. Furthermore, the cuttings in the Yablonovoi chain are saturated with water, 

 which can only be drawn off with great difficulty, the soil is also in many places perpetually 

 frozen and the excavations in such ground are 3 . 64 sagenes deep, and therefore, the only 

 conclusion to be arrived at is that the earth work in this section will be of an exception- 

 ally difficult character. Besides this, in consequence of the steepness of the slopes of 

 the banks of the Ingoda and Shilka rivers, all the embankments along them will have 

 to be supported by retaining walls to the amount of 56,000 cubic sagenes along a distance of 

 300 versts. 



The difficulty of laying this section is further increased by the exceptional climatic 

 conditions of the locality through which the line passes. The climate of the region beyond 

 lake Baikal is quite continental; on account of its severity the changes of temperature are 

 extreme; thus, on the Yablonovoi chain in June and July the day temperature rises to 25° 

 Celsius and during the night falls to — 5*^. The air is characterized by its extreme dryness 

 and the amount of moisture which falls during the year is inconsiderable. There is such a 

 small quantity of snow that along the whole of the line to the lower part of the river Se- 

 lenga the ground is hardly covered with it. Only there and along the shore of lake Baikal 

 does the sledge road last any considerable length of time; along the rest of the distance from 

 Verkhneoudinsk to the east, sledge roads are very rare and sledges are only driven along 

 the ice on the rivers. 



From meteorological observations recorded, it was shown that at Verkhneoudinsk in 1886 

 the temperature was only above freezing point for the three summer months; in 1887 during one 

 summer month it was above zero, and at almost zero during two months; in 1888 it was 

 above zero for two months, and during the three years period from 1886 to 1888 the highest 

 temperature was in July, -f 37° Celsius, and the lowest in January, — 47° Celsius, whilst on 

 the Yitimsk plateau and the Yablonovoi chain even in summer a temperature of — 5" Celsius 

 was recorded. Furthermore in the upper part of the river Uda, on the Yitimsk plateau, in 

 the Yablonovoi chain, and in the valleys of the Konda and Chita rivers, there is a perpetually 

 frozen subsoil. The depth to which the soil is frozen, according to investigations made in 

 the valley of the Chita river at a height of 340 sagenes above the level of the sea, was on 

 the average 372 sagenes, and in summer the ground thaws to a depth of 1 . 83 sagenes, so 

 that the remaining stratum, 1 . 67 sagenes thick, is eternally frozen. On the Yitimsk plateau 

 and the Yablonovoi chain the ground in summer thaws only to the depth of three-tenths of 

 a sagene. and in the valley of the Kondyu river, to a depth of six-tenths of a sagone. 



