348 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



began January i, 191 5, with the appoint- 

 ment by the Russian Government of 

 Vladamir Goriachkovsky as the engineer. 

 At his disposal were placed 100,000 

 workmen recruited from all parts of the 

 empire. 



The line had to run through a terrain 

 presenting the most discouraging diffi- 

 culties — swamps, bogs, frozen lakes, and 

 almost impenetrable forests. 



In Russia's peril, construction work 

 could not wait upon the advent of spring. 

 Soundings were made through the ice by 

 means of long iron rods to determine 

 earth contours, in order to establish the 

 safest roadbeds in swampy country. 

 Much of the surveying during the long 

 nights of the Arctic winter had to be done 

 by lantern light. 



The German propaganda bureau spread 

 reports of frightful mortality among the 

 workmen, but as a matter of fact, al- 

 though the laborers lived under the most 

 primitive conditions, in tents, the death 

 rate was extremely low. About one per 

 cent of those taken ill succumbed to 

 scurvy. 



It is true that when the first trains 

 began to run over the partly completed 

 road there were occasions when the track 

 suddenly subsided, due to the fact that 

 the rails had been laid upon what were 

 thought to be rocks, but which proved, 

 with the thaw of spring, to be ice. Under 

 the circumstances, however, these mis- 

 haps were comparatively rare, and no 

 serious accidents resulted. The swampy 

 character of the right of way is indicated 

 by the fact that there are 1,110 bridges 

 on the line. 



To maintain American and Allied 

 troops operating along the Archangel- 

 Vologda line in the winter of 1918-1919, 

 when the harbor of Archangel was sealed, 

 supplies were shipped by steamer to Mur- 

 mansk, where they were unloaded and 

 sent by rail to Kandalaksha, a distance 

 of 170 miles, and thence transported by 

 sledges across the frozen White Sea to 

 Archangel, 200 miles to the east. 



Murmansk's day in th£ sun 



Even before the boom occasioned by 

 the decision of the Allies and America to 

 dispatch an expeditionary force to Rus- 

 sia, Murmansk had grown to be quite a 



settlement, with its 3,500 to 4,000 inhab- 

 itants augmented from week to week by 

 refugees whose number fluctuated from 

 a few hundred to 3,000. 



As was the case with all building opera- 

 tions in the empire, the Russian Revolu- 

 tion interfered materially with the growth 

 of the port, which is situated on the east 

 bank of the Kola Inlet, 30 miles south of 

 the Arctic shore. Most of the buildings 

 are of one story and are constructed of 

 unhewn logs, chinked with native moss. 

 The streets under the Russian regime 

 were entirely of dirt. On both sides of 

 the inlet, which is one and a half miles 

 wide at this point, hills rise to a height of 

 several hundred feet. The harbor is un- 

 obstructed by hidden rocks or shoals, and 

 the ship berths can accommodate the 

 largest ocean-going freighters. 



The Murman (a corruption of Nor- 

 man) is the name given to the 260-mile 

 stretch of Arctic seaboard which forms 

 the northern boundary of the Kola Pen- 

 insula, a vast plateau having an average 

 elevation of 1,000 feet and covered with 

 swamps, peat-bogs, forests, and lakes, 

 lying almost entirely within the Arctic 

 Circle and embracing an area as large as 

 England and Wales combined. 



Before the war the Murman Coast was 

 practically uninhabited throughout the 

 greater part of the year. In summer, 

 however, Lapps and Russian fishermen 

 from Archangel and the Pomorya dis- 

 trict (lying west of the White Sea) 

 formed fishing communities to take ad- 

 vantage of the bountiful schools of sal- 

 mon, cod, and herring off shore. 



The Lapps live in the interior of the 

 peninsula in winter, tending their herds of 

 reindeer, which furnish them with food, 

 clothing, and transportation. In times of 

 peace there is a considerable lumber in- 

 dustry, but otherwise the peninsula is 

 comparatively non-productive, as only the 

 scantiest crops of rye, barley, potatoes, 

 and hay can be grown. The animal life 

 is similar to that of most other high lati- 

 tudes, including foxes, bear, martens, ot- 

 ters, elk, deer, and hares. 



Mosquitoes are a serious pest in sum- 

 mer, even the reindeer being forced to 

 flee to the high ground of the Chibinski 

 Mountains, near the middle of the penin- 

 sula, to escape the harassing swarms. 



