470 



EUSSIA IN EUEOPE. 



it is surpassed even by those of such countries as Portugal and Eumania. The 

 system also labours under the commercial inconvenience of using different gauges, 

 though this presents the anticipated strategic advantage of preventing the German 

 trains from penetrating into the country. On the main lines the five-foot gauge 

 prevails. Eailway accidents are, on an average, more frequent in Russia than 

 elsewhere in Europe. 



The centre of the system is at Moscow, where the five main lines converge, and 

 where the passenger and goods traffic is about double that of St. Petersburg.* 

 From this centre the lines run westwards to the Central European network, 



Fig. 253.— Growth of Attendance in the Russian Gymnasia and Universities prom 1808 to 1877. 



Upper Curve : Studen''s of the Gymnasia. Lower Curve : University Students. 



southwards to Odessa, Taganrog, and the Caucasus, eastwards to the Volga at 

 various points, and beyond it to Orenburg. But they do not yet reach the Caspian 

 or Central Asia, though an isolated line connects Perm with Yekaterinenburg, 

 beyond the Urals. The northern lines stop at Vologda, so that the Finnish and 

 Scandinavian systems advance much nearer to the Arctic Ocean than does the 

 Russian. Some of the great trunk lines also pass from 3 to Smiles from such 

 important places as Tver, Orol, Kursk, to the great inconvenience of passengers. 



* Moscow (1873), 1,903,954 passengers; 3,034,000 tons; St. Petersburg, 1,050,213 passengers; 

 1,287,000 tons. Total passengers (1879), 38,000,001) ; merchandise, 1,510,000 tons. 



