ON THE MURMAN COAST 



BY JOHN D. GUTHRIE 



(FORMERLY CAPTAIN, 310th ENGINEERS, U. S. A., A. E. F., NORTH RUSSIA) 



FR( >M the northernmost point in Europe, known as 

 North Cape, two peninsulas stretch out. A large 

 one, toward the southwest, is the Scandinavian ; the 

 other, much smaller, to the southeast, is called the Kola 

 Peninsula. If you follow down the coast from North 

 Cape, you will rind an indentation, marked Kola Bay. 

 This long stretch of coast from North Cape to the White 

 Sea is known as the 

 M U r m a n (Norman ) 

 It was the 

 writer's good fortune 



end some time- on 

 the Murman Coast, in 

 Russian Lapland, in 

 April, 1919. 



We had left Harwich, 

 called by all good Eng- 

 lishmen, "Horridge," 

 on the east coast of 



and in early April 

 on board the U. S. S. 

 "Galveston," en route 

 from France to Arch- 

 angel, Russia. After a 

 day or two up along the 

 east coast of Scotland 

 and past the Shetlands 

 and the Orkneys, we 

 swung northeast for 

 North Cape and the 

 of Norway, where 

 wonderful views were 

 had of the magnificent 



Is. We then . 

 ed the Arctic Circle 

 and shortly after pass- 

 ed within plain view of 



snow-clad promontory 

 jutting out from Eu- 

 into the Arctic 

 Ocean. A rugged 

 shore, snow-covered, 



BOATS AT THE DOCKS AT MURMANSK 

 The hills in the background have a scattered growth of Scotch pine and birch. 



INSIDE THE ARCTIC CIRCLE 

 Snow and ice on the decks of the ship on its way to Murmansk. 



for the American Expeditionary Force, North Russia. 

 Even the snow-clad hills and the reindeer looked inviting 

 after some five days of the Arctic Ocean. On account 

 of the necessity of trans-shipping at Murmansk to a 

 Russian boat, we waited in the harbor for some ten days, 

 going ashore each day and seeing the town and the 

 surrounding country. Murmansk and the outlying coun- 

 try proved to be an in- 

 tensely interesting lo- 

 cality, and a great sur- 

 prise in many ways. 

 The town, which is 

 in latitude about 69 

 North (about the same 

 latitude as southern 

 Greenland, or 2 north 

 of the northernmost 

 point of Iceland), well 

 inside the Arctic Circle, 

 dates only from 1916. 

 It sprang into being 

 upon the construction 

 of the railroad from 

 Zvanka (on the Petro- 

 grad- Siberian Railway) 

 to Kola Bay, a gigantic 

 undertaking of 660 

 miles, put through by 

 the Russian Govern- 

 ment while the war was 

 in progress. Mur- 

 mansk is Russia's only 

 ice-free port on the 

 north ; the strategical 

 importance of such a 

 railroad during a world 

 war can readily be ap- 

 preciated. The con- 

 struction of this rail- 

 road, through frozen 

 marsh and tundra, and 

 through a country of 

 innumerable lakes, 



rising precipitously out 



a for thousands of feet, with no sign of life 

 one realized that none but a hardy race could 

 survive in that region. 



after passing Vafanger Fjord we steamed into 



Kola Bay, and thence up the narrow Kola Inlet for 



thirty miles, mostly through floating ice, dropping 



or off the town of .Murmansk. We had on board 



enty-five British officers and soldiers and several 



hundred American Army officeis and enlisted men, bound 



would make a fascinat- 

 ing story, built as it was during the long Arctic winter, 

 and largely by German prison labor. Kola Inlet runs in 

 south from the Arctic Ocean for some forty-six miles 

 being rather narrow and protected on both sides by high 

 bills covered on the slopes with a scattering stand of 

 Scotch pine, birch and willow. The harbor of Mur- 

 mansk is almost ideal for a large port, and the predic- 

 tion is made that some day Murmansk will be one of 

 the important ports of northern Europe. While the 



159 



