THE TRAHS-SIBERIAH RAILWAY, 
111 
first have a carriageable track across the continent, and they added, 
with equal truth, that in the United States of America there existed 
about 200,000 miles of railroad, although the carriage roads were not, 
on the whole, such as might have been expected from such a 
progressive nation. 
The arguments of the opponents of the Siberian line amounted to 
this, that to make it without first constructing a road, would closely 
resemble trying to run before one had learned to walk. 
Especially when we think of the tremendous distances in Siberia, 
is it difficult to see how any doubt could have existed as to the advant¬ 
ages in favour of the railway project. Apart altogether from any 
political or military schemes, it was known that incalculable wealth 
of almost every description existed in the country, and that this could 
not possibly be utilised to any considerable extent without safe, 
comparatively rapid, and cheap means of communication, which could 
only be given by a railway. When I was at Chita, in the heart of 
Siberia, the transport of goods thither from Europe cost about 
£30 a ton. When the through line is opened it may amount 
to £5, consequently the actual necessaries of daily life were enor¬ 
mously expensive, even salt costing four and a half times as much 
as in Europe, so that although wages were about twice as high in 
Siberia, the earners of them gained but little, if at all, in many cases. 
As we all know, however, the railway project was adopted, and 
although a French syndicate had wanted to construct the line on 
terms advantageous to Eussia, the government of that country decided 
to make it an Imperial undertaking. 
Work was and is carried on at several places, far distant from one 
another at the same time, and, when the difficulties connected with 
the labour supply, the carriage of materials, and the severe climate 
are considered, it is certain that the work done reflects the very high¬ 
est credit on those responsible for its execution. 
The line is a single one, of the normal Eussian gauge of 5 feet, 
and the stations, situated in often quite uninhabited localities, are 
about twenty miles apart. But since there are sidings, long enough 
for trains to pass each other about every five or six miles, the railway 
is, for practical purposes, almost a double line. 
Soon after it was put in hand, people in Eussia who had 
seriously considered the problem, began to believe that the line 
which was to cost at least forty millions sterling, could not 
have its main terminus at Vladivostok, a name which signifies 
“ Euler of the East.” In the first place that harbour of magni¬ 
ficent dimensions may be closed for only, perhaps, ten days by 
ice in winter, as was the case when I was there. But it may be, and 
sometimes is frozen up for several weeks or some months. Modern 
ice breakers can, it is true cut channels, as the ice is never very thick, 
but they may also break down when wanted, and in any case a few 
open canals cannot by any possibility afford the same facilities that 
an unfrozen port offers. Not only is this so, but it seems doubtful 
