Photo by A. W. Greely 



A CHARACTERISTIC SIBERIAN RAILWAY TOWN 



Rude tarantasses and antiquated dros- 

 kies in scanty numbers furnish the local 

 transportation. The rude vehicles are 

 dragged by Siberian ponies slowly and 

 painfully through almost impassable 

 streets, where the mud was axle-deep 

 during our stay. 



A RAILWAY WITHOUT A PARAIvLEL 



The railway journey on which we 

 entered is without a parallel elsewhere, 

 extending across the entire Empire of 

 Russia from east to west, the distance 

 exceeding 6,400 miles from Vladivostok 

 via Moscow and Warsaw to Alexandrov, 

 on the frontier of Germany. This Rus- 

 sian railway system, covering in de- 

 crees of longitude, extends practically 

 one-third of the way around the world 

 near the 60th parallel of latitude. 



While there are now various lines com- 

 prised in the Siberian system, the main 

 stem, crossing northern Manchuria and 

 passing around the southern shores of 

 Lake Baikal, has its termini at Vladi- 

 vostok, on the Pacific Ocean, and at 

 Moscow — 5,600 miles apart. Unique in 

 its length, the railway was constructed 

 with unparalleled rapidity. The strictly 

 Siberian sections of 3,300 miles were 

 ;t)uilt in seven years, 1 891- 1898, the rate 



of construction approaching two miles 

 for each working day, from which are 

 excluded Sundays and the numerous 

 Russian feast days. 



It is the recognition of conditions to 

 say that the construction of this great 

 transcontinental railway is one of the 

 most remarkable feats of man's energy, 

 persistency, and industry recorded in the 

 annals of human history. There has been 

 a tendency outside of Russia to under- 

 estimate this railway through irrelevant 

 or unfair comparisons of the equipment 

 and road-bed with those found on the 

 standard systems of Europe and America. 



The cost of the entire Siberian Rail- 

 way systems has been variously stated, 

 but it probably approximates $400,000,- 

 000 — far exceeding the amount spent on 

 any previous work of public utility, al- 

 though it will be equaled or surpassed by 

 the total cost of the Panama Interoceanic 

 Canal. 



The Siberian railways may be viewed 

 as yet in conditions of transition as to 

 rails, road-bed, and equipment. Origi- 

 nally of the lightest and least expensive 

 character, not unsuited for the level, 

 thinly settled country of western Siberia, 

 they have of necessity been improved 

 and modified so as to meet the growing 



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