152 LINE TO THE SEAT OF WAR. 



as a matter of course be much higher, and at the 

 seat of war the work would be almost impossible for 

 civilians and especially for foreigners. All that how- 

 ever was of no avail and was hardly listened to. The 

 Emperor had spoken! In the course of the day 

 I received an official letter, communicating that the 



' O 



Emperor desired to express his thanks to us for the 

 services hitherto performed for Russia in its difficult 

 situation, and for the offer of a rapid construction 

 of the required line to the seat of war, but that he 

 trusted we should, in consideration of the hard war 

 times, construct the new line more cheaply than the 

 previous ones. 



That was an extremely difficult situation for us. 

 The summer was already half gone, and before the 

 end of it new material was in no manner of way to 

 be got to the spot. Moreover without a heavy river- 

 cable it was impossible to cross the broad and swampy 

 Dnieper. And yet the imperial order had to be com- 

 plied with, so far as in any way possible. The only 

 possibility of effecting a telegraphic communication at 

 least to Perekop, situated on the isthmus uniting the 

 Crimea with the continent, consisted in collecting all the 

 materials remaining over from the construction of the 

 hitherto completed lines, sending them to Nikolaiev, and 

 carrying the line in a circuit of about thirty versts by 

 way of Bereslaw, where a bridge crossed the Dnieper, 

 and made the passage practicable without a river- 

 cable. The same night, in which the communication 

 was made to me, we had accordingly corresponded 



