Geographic Notes 



79 



forest. The northern zone, cold and 

 barren, stretches in an almost unbroken 

 tundra to the polar regions. The south- 

 ern zone is rich in those climatic and 

 natural conditions that favor industry 

 and perseverance, and it is this zone 

 that the railway traverses. 



During the two decades, i86o-r88o, 

 110,000 people emigrated to Siberia; 

 during the next 15 years this number 

 had increased to 680,000, while during 

 the last five 57ears more than 1,200,000 

 persons, the majority sturdy Russian 

 peasants, have settled there. The present 

 population of Siberia is about 9,000,000. 



So great has been the rush of traffic 

 since the line was first opened in 1899 

 that the equipment has failed to equal 

 the demands upon it. 



Of the exports from Siberia corn, sent 

 to the European markets, forms nearly 

 one- half. Next come meat, butter 

 (which is shipped in special refrigerator 

 cars to London), tallow, hides, wool, 

 eggs, and game. The chief imports are 

 iron and ironware, sugar, cottons and 

 woolens, machinery, and petroleum. 



Even today, when the last stages of 

 the Siberian road are not completed, the 

 journey from London to Vladivostok by 

 railway takes onh' a little more than 

 half as many days, 24 to 42, as the jour- 

 ney by the Suez Canal. The easiest 

 route between the two oceans is Havre, 

 Paris, Cologne, Berlin, Warsaw, Mos- 

 cow, Samara, Omsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk, 

 Vladivostok — 7,500 miles. Of this, 

 6,400 miles, or six-sevenths of the whole 

 trip, fall to Russian railwa5^s — 4,100 to 

 the Siberian main line and 2,300 to the 

 European-Russian system, 700 to Ger- 

 man, 100 to Belgian, and 300 to French 

 lines. 



The traveler can reach Shanghai from 

 London or Paris, when the main trunk 

 line is completed, in 16 days, and will 

 have to pay $160 for his first-class sleep- 

 ing-car express ticket, instead of being 

 42 days on the route and paying $450 

 for the journey. 



The total cost of the Siberian road 

 to date, constructed as it has been by 

 Russians with Russian mone}', with all 

 branches and auxiliary undertakino-s 

 including vessels and ports, is $385,- 

 000,000. In regard to this enormous 

 cost the official report states: 



" However large the total may be, it 

 is insignificant in comparison with the 

 advantages held out to Russia by the 

 exploitation of the shortest railway route 

 between the Atlantic and the Pacific, in 

 conjunction with the stimulation of the 

 rich productive powers of a vast countrj' 

 like Siberia and the development of Rus- 

 sia's commercial intercourse with the 

 countries of eastern Asia." 



HON. O. P. AUSTIN. 



MR. AUSTIN'S paper on a floating 

 exposition, which is printed in the 

 opening pages of the present number, 

 was read by him Before the National 

 Board of Trade on January 24, at the 

 special request of that body. The propo- 

 sition, although a novel one, was re- 

 ceived with such favorable consideration 

 that a special committee, consisting of 

 the leading officers of the National 

 Board of Trade, the Philadelphia Mu- 

 seums, the National Manufacturers' 

 Association, and the United States Ex- 

 port Association, was at once appointed 

 to consider its feasibility, and, if found 

 practicable, to formulate plans for a 

 proper organization to put it into opera- 

 tion. 



Mr. Austin has been Chief of the 

 Bureau of Statistics since the spring of 

 1898, and during that time has prepared 

 and published officially a large number 

 of works on topics of current interest, 

 including " Commercial China in 1899," 

 "Commercial Japan," "Commercial 

 South America," "Commercial Africa," 

 "Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Hawai- 

 ian, Philippine, and Samoan Islands," 

 ' ' Russia and the Trans-Siberian Rail- 



