650 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 27, 1906. 
OLD FORT HALIFAX. 
Photo by Charles A. Allen. 
abandoned. This was indeed news for them! 
The news almost staggered them! Hailing from 
Petersburg, where everything happening in 
Rnssiadom is supposed to be known, it was in¬ 
comprehensible to them how a railroad could 
have been b”ilt in any part of slafdom without 
being officially recorded. 
However, here existed apparently a railroad, 
which, although abandoned, had withstood the 
rough usage ot several years’ operation—and on 
unballasted track at that—proving that the sub¬ 
stratum must be fairly solid. Here at least they 
might find a fairly level stretch of country, free 
from the treacherous “yellow peril'' of “quick- 
mud,” which might perhaps be availed of in whole 
or in part. 
To find the railroad, was the next move. It 
was in the forest, “somewhere between there and 
the river.” It might be considered a rather 
easy matter to stumble across a clumsily-built 
wide-gauge railroad a dozen miles long, with its 
prostrate tree-trunks for ties. Different squads 
of surveyors spent weeks traversing and re¬ 
traversing the forest until they came out each 
time on to the broad Angara river’s edge, but 
found nothing! They were almost beginning to 
believe they had been duped, when the sheds 
were reported found intact at what transpired 
later to be the terminals of the railroad that 
was. 
From one of these sheds they could now per¬ 
ceive, in the forest,' evidences of a clearing of 
bygone years; and they painfully followed it 
right through the whole seventeen versti till 
they came out on to the other shed. The entire 
route was much overgrown with undergrowth; 
and the whole distance, bordered with the dense 
forest, was almost as black and cold as a 
mountain tunnel; while overhead, on this bright, 
warm August day, the sun could be just ob¬ 
served lighting up the topmost branches of the 
giant firs. 
Of the railroad, however, not a vestige was 
found. It had completely disappeared. Not a 
rail! not a sleeper !—only an occasional semblance 
now and then of what had once been cross-drain¬ 
age-ditches. The builders and owners of the 
“road,” at Irkutsk, were eventually found and 
questioned, and a couple of them were inspired 
with sufficient curiosity to make the long tedious 
journey to- look up what had become of their 
“property”; and they covered with the surveyors 
the whole of the ground with which in- previous 
years they had been familiar. Here and there 
the picks were driven as far as they would go 
into the earth, but only to bare masses of tangled 
roots. The railroad was lost! 
However, the arrival on the scene of these 
“owners” of a “railroad” —(they had never seen 
a European one)—which did not exist, had one 
signad advantage: they proved to be the extinct 
railroad’s only “historians.” What is being re¬ 
lated here, imperfectly, could not have been but 
for them. They also told how the rails were 
all one thick “web,” with flush sides, held to the 
ties by iron spikes driven each side of the rails 
deep into the sleeper till top of spike and rail 
were even. Where these worked loose, the rail 
was re-enforced by several turns of iron wire 
bodily round rail and sleeper, but the wire was 
. soon worn through by the wheels, and the severed 
scraggling ends were always giving trouble. 
It could not have been burnt up, because there 
had been no fires; nor “stolen” or carried off 
piecemeal, as the region was totally lacking in 
population. Moreover, the old goods-sheds re¬ 
mained with their padlocks intact, and lead-lined 
cases of “overlooked" goods were still found in 
dark corners therein, containing tobacco- and 
cigars, all in good condition, also crates of cognac, 
champagne, bodka (whiskey), which had evi¬ 
dently been “slummed” while in transit by em¬ 
ployes who calculated returning and securing the 
booty later. What would a hoodlum do to secure 
choice wines and cigars he knew to be in an 
abandoned building? 
The railroad was never found. It was the half- 
superstitious belief that an earthquake or fissure 
had swallowed it up—in an earthquakeless region 
Its site was after all never utilized by the trans- 
Siberian, which is built remote from the scene. 
Nearly a decade ago I was within a few verstas 
but did not visit, the site. My informant, the 
chief engineer Kpychkol, had been over the spot: 
it was reckoned the most curious incident in the 
history of the construction of the trans-Siberian, 
and was commented on officially. I have known 
abandoned railroads, on fairly good track, after 
three or four years, to be only just showing 
above surface the familiar two rusty streaks. 
Note also- that it has already been observed how 
the retracers of the route reported it “much over¬ 
grown with undergrowth.” The significance of 
this is apparent, although it was not in a Russian 
engineer to remark this instance of cause and 
effect: that undergrowth in all probability owed 
most of its origin and profusion to the taking- 
root of the submerged tree-length ties, and ac¬ 
counts for the delving picks baring masses of 
tangled roots. 
The lost railroad of Siberia had never (as be- • 
fore remarked) had prepared for it any ballasted 
track: the tree-lengths for ties were considered 
sufficient ballast. Then, in some bygone summer 
of extra warmth, warm rains had so loosened 
the half-frozen swampy subsoil as to. cause a 
gradual and complete subsidence the entire length 
of the line—the weighty and cumbrous pig-iron 
rails carrying the water-soaked tree-sleepers down 
“to their last account.” Once such a subsidence 
sets in, it would, in Siberia, go on gradually till 
it reached bed rock, which is but half a dozen 
feet below the surface, and consists of the eter¬ 
nally-frozen lower earth strata. Borings show that 
this frozen sub-strata lasts for some 600 feet down 
So, at a depth of a few feet, the lost railroad 
will be found to this day—far better preserved 
maybe than had it been left exposed; and in the 
year .1000 something, its unearthing may be puzzl¬ 
ing the antiquarians of the seething city of 
' “Siberiapolis,” as an example of the queer 
methods of travel (byways known as railroads) 
of bygone ages; whereas “we nowadays can visit 
the "far-away ancient ruins of Chicago and Man¬ 
hattan by ‘globular attraction' in half a day.” _ 
Such is the brief history of what the Siberian- 
Russians themselves call their notepil jelezma — 
the lost railroad. L. Lodian. 
STIMULATION WITHOUT REACTION. 
After a day of enjoyable sport, it is wise to choose a 
drink which helps to restore the vital powers rather than 
one which tends to deplete them, as in the case with 
many drinks. Borden’s Malted Milk is delicious, con¬ 
centrated, nourishing, invaluable to the camper, made 
ready for use by adding water, hot or cold.— Adv. 
Old Fort Halifax. 
Worcester, Mass., Oct. 12. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Two years or so ago, while engaged 
in professional work at Waterville, Maine, I 
became very much interested in the history of 
Old Fort Halifax, which was located in the town 
of Winslow just across the Kennebec from 
Waterville. and at the junction of the Sebasti- 
cook and the Kennebec rivers. Nothing remains 
of the old fort now but one of the block houses 
which was probably located upon the southeast 
corner of the fort. 
You will notice by the enclosed photograph 
that it was constructed of hewn timber, the 
second story projecting beyond the first, its floor 
being open, which enabled the garrison to fire 
down upon the heads of invaders in case they 
tried to set fire to the fort or to storm it. 
The fort was 100 feet square with a block 
house at each corner, and was erected by order 
of Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, (Maine 
being at that time a portion of Massachusetts) 
in 1754-5, under the immediate superintendence 
of General John Winslow, from whom the town 
of Winslow was named. The fort was originally 
constructed of solid timber and was 20 feet in 
height, and could accommodate 400 men. It was 
the most northerly of a line of forts built on 
the banks of the Kennebec river, and which were 
erected as defenses during the French and Indian 
war. There was another fort constructed at 
Augusta, still further down the stream, a portion 
of which is still standing, I believe. 
You will notice by the photographs that there 
are many places in the timber which have been 
dug out with knives, and I was told that a great 
many bullets have been obtained in this way, but 
it is certain that the fort was never attacked in 
force, although quite a number of the garrison 
were killed from ambush. The records show that 
at one time two men were fishing on the banks 
of the river immediately under the walls of the 
fort, and they were shot by Indians, but it is 
quite probable that with the large garrison that 
was maintained here, the Indians did not dare to 
make a serious attempt to take the fort. 
At the time the fort was constructed, there was 
no settlement in the vicinity, but it was believed 
that by erecting and maintaining a fortification at 
this point, it would act as a safeguard for the 
settlements further down the river, and without 
