3§ 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Sketch Map of Siberian Railway 



and would have remained a trackless 

 waste. With it, it will be an empire 

 which within a century will exercise 

 more influence in the world's affairs 

 than European Russia ever has, for it 

 is sure to be the dominant power in the 

 Orient, where half the population of the 

 world is found, and it is not impossible 

 that in some distant future the United 

 States of North America may clasp hands 

 across the Pacific with the United States 

 of Northern Asia. 



In the public parkin Khabarovsk, on 

 a high bluff overlooking the Amur and 

 Usuri Valleys, there stands a splendid 

 statue of General Muravieff . His back 

 is turned upon the conquests of the past 

 and he is looking at and pointing toward 

 Manchuria. 



As I sat and gazed at it and thought 

 of the events of the past two years, 

 I fancied I could see the bronze eyes 

 twinkle and the lips move with a shout 

 of triumph, for the Cossack has matched 

 again, and by fire and sword almost to 

 the Chinese wall, has established Rus- 

 sian control over all Manchuria. 



ITS VASTNESS 



Few people realize the immensity of 

 Siberia, for it is impossible for the mind 

 to grasp the meaning of five million five 

 hundred thousand square miles. To 

 think of a single state stretching through 

 one hundred and thirty degrees of longi- 



tude and covering thirty-two degrees of 

 latitude and equalling one-ninth of the 

 land surface of the globe is almost in- 

 conceivable. 



Let us measure it by countries with 

 which we are familiar. Take all of the 

 United States between the oceans and 

 add Alaska, the Philippines, Hawaii, and 

 Porto Rico; then add England, Ireland, 

 Scotland, and Wales; then cross the 

 English Channel and take France, Bel- 

 gium, Holland, Denmark, Norway and 

 Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, 

 Spain, and Portugal, Austria, Greece, 

 Turkey, Bulgaria, Roumania, and Ser- 

 via, making all of Europe except Russia, 

 and you could put them all in Siberia 

 and have land enough left to make 

 thirt} r -five states like Connecticut, and 

 Manchuria will make seventy more. 



SURPRISES 



I had thought of Siberia as a convict 

 settlement only, with a small population 

 composed largely of criminals and polit- 

 ical exiles. I found it a country of 

 nearly nine million people, 97 per cent 

 of whom were either natives or volun- 

 tary immigrants, with the exile system 

 discontinued or transferred to the island 

 of Sakhalin, and all, as a rule, earning 

 better wages, living in better houses, 

 having better food and clothing, and 

 enjoying much more political and re- 

 ligious liberty and personal freedom 



