THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

HE general characteristics of the Trans-Siberian Railroad may be described in a few words. It will be by far the longest railway on earth. It is very much more solidly constructed, for the most part, than is generally supposed. The road-bed is perfectly firm, and the track is well ballasted. Though in certain of the sections far to the east great engineering difficulties have to be contended with, the gradients on the greater part of the route are remarkably easy.

Uniformity of gauge is the keynote of Russian railway engineers. Accordingly, in possessing a five-foot gauge, the Great Siberian is uniform with all the railroads throughout the Russian Empire. Thus, the ample breadth of the cars harmonises with the luxury which astonishes the traveller who visits Russia for the first time, no matter in what region of the Empire he happens to be touring. The great height of the carriages, proportionate with the width, adds to the imposing aspect of the trains. It is necessary to bear these considerations in mind, for the idea prevails throughout the world outside Russia that this colossal road is being carried through, not only with great haste, but also on a flimsy and superficial system. The bridges are necessarily very numerous, for Siberia is a land of mighty rivers with countless tributaries. All the permanent bridges are of iron. Those which were temporarily made of timber are being in every case reconstructed, and the Great Siberian will include some of the most magnificent bridges in the world.

The bridge over the Irtish is unrivalled. Being nearly four miles long, it is on that account phenomenal; but its stupendous piers, designed specially to resist the fearful pressure of the ice, would alone convince any sceptic of the determination of the Russian administration to spare none of the resources of the Empire in order to make

this railway absolutely efficient, alike for mercantile and military purposes, The Trans-Siberian Railway is intended to create a new Siberia. It is already fulfilling that aim, as I shall show. The most potent of the civilising factors of the twentieth century will in this enterprise be presented to the world, and in a very few years people will realise with astonishment what this railway means.

The Trans-Siberian nominally begins in Europe. It is inaugurated by the magnificent iron bridge which spans the Volga at Samara in East Russia. The Volga is here a giant river, and this noble bridge joins the European railway system with the new Asiatic line. But practically the Asian line commences in the heart of the Ural Mountains, if that long and broad chain of low and pretty hills ought to be dignified with the name of mountains. Here lies the little town of Cheliabinsk, which five years ago was the terminus of the European system.

The effect of this wonderful undertaking will be the opening up of Siberia, making it easy of access in any spot, and the development of its incalculable but splendid resources and capabilities. During my own wanderings in Russia I saw nothing which so much surprised me as that large section of the Pan-Russian Exhibition at Nijni-Novgorod which was devoted to the display of Siberian products. I found that few foreign visitors to Russia who inspected that extraordinary exhibition were prepared for the revelation to which they were treated. All with whom I had any conversation seemed amazed at the evidences of the wealth of Siberia. Not only natural products, but also artificial commodities and manufactured articles of almost every class were shown in the grand Siberian Halls at Nijni. So great are the potentialities of Siberian development that the Russians are fully justified in the romantic expectations they cherish of the results of this enormous railway extension. Too many critics of Russia, otherwise accurate enough, leave out of consideration the all-important fact that she is about to become, in a predominant sense, an Asiatic Power. In a few years she will be able to supply all her essential needs from her territories beyond the Ural. The facts to be taken into account are that Siberia is the greatest country in the world so far as mere magnitude is concerned; and that this huge territory is one vast repository of undeveloped resources, both mineral and agricultural. Before the middle of the next century, millions of the posterity of the poor "moujiks," the peasants now dwelling in the European districts of the Don, Samara, Toula, and the Ukraine, will be occupying countless "mirs," or village communes, which will dot the forests of the Siberian Tundra, the Steppes of South Central Siberia, and the lovely valleys between the mountain ranges that make the regions towards Kamtchatka one of the coming playgrounds and hunting paradises of the near future.

It is an interesting fact that Americans and Englishmen were the real authors of this splendid and romantic scheme for spanning the Asiatic continent with a railway from west to east. Here and there in the Russian provinces I met Englishmen very successfully engaged in trade. These were, however, almost invariably working on their own account, or for firms in their own countries which had commissioned them to go out. The time is almost past when the Russian Government will engage a foreigner to direct public works. Only two generations ago nearly every position of responsibility was committed to some clever man from the universities, laboratories, engineering works, or counting-houses of Britain or America. For the construction of the Great Siberian Railway the Russian promoters are relying entirely on native engineers. Nevertheless, it is certain that the scheme would never have been ventured on but for the impetus given to Muscovite enterprise by Anglo-Saxon brains.

In 1857 an American named Collins came forward with a scheme for the formation of an Amur Railway Company, to lay a line from Irkutsk to Chita. Although his plan was not officially adopted, it was carefully kept in mind, and it actually forms the main and central part of the present line. An English engineer offered to lay a tramroad across Siberia, after Muravieff had carried Russia to the Pacific by his brilliant annexation of the mouths of the Amur. In 1858 three Englishmen offered to construct a railway from Moscow through Nijni Novgorod to Tartar Bay. Though all proposals by foreigners have been courteously shelved, they have in reality formed the bases of native enterprise. It is to the credit of Russia that she has determined to depend on the energy and ability of her own sons to carry out this colossal undertaking. It took forty years to think out the ideas now being executed, and meanwhile another great system of Russo-Asiatic railways has been mainly completed. I refer to the Trans-Caspian, by which a passenger can now travel continuously, with every luxury, from St. Petersburg to Merv. This fact alone must convince the thoughtful observer that a revolution has commenced in many of the conditions of civilisation hitherto regarded as perfectly stable. A great disturbance of things is at hand, as the nations of Europe are about to realise. Great awakenings await our statesmen and our merchants. Splendid possibilities, moreover, are at hand for those who may know how to use them. Russia will need peace, and will seek to secure it on terms advantageous to herself. Why should she not? But it will ere long be more difficult than ever for even the most powerful foes to wage war with her, with the idea of making any impression on her impassive bureaucracy. Contingencies will arise which will seriously affect the international equilibrium, and many of these will be occasioned by the completion of the Siberian Railway. Any

who think that this enterprise will constitute no very important factor in the world's progress are dangerously out of the true reckoning.

One of the chronic troubles of the Russian Government arises from the uneven distribution of the population. It happens that those are the most thickly inhabited districts which are the least able to support a dense population. For instance, immense numbers of villages are scattered through the vast forest regions of Central and Western Russia, where birch trees grow by millions, while the great wheatgrowing plains of the west centre and south-west are but sparsely inhabited. Then again, the infatuation of the military oligarchy has been evidenced in the plan by which all the railways except this new Siberian line have been designed for purely military purposes. The Emperor Nicholas insisted on all the lines being developed without the slightest regard to the wants of the towns and the conveniences of commerce. Even the natural facilities for engineering operations were not allowed by that autocrat to be for a moment taken into consideration. His engineers were once consulting him as to the expediency of taking the line from St. Petersburg to Moscow by a slight detour, to avoid some very troublesome obstacles. The Tsar took up a ruler, and with his pencil drew a straight line from the old metropolis. Handing back the chart, he peremptorily said, "There, gentlemen, that is to be the route for the line!" And certainly there is not a straighter reach of 600 miles on any railroad in the world, as every tourist knows who has journeyed between the two chief cities of the Russian Empire. Even the Siberian line will scarcely contain anything direct enough to compare with this, though the perfectly straight sections are in some cases extraordinary. For instance, not very far beyond the Urals there is one magnificent stretch of perfectly straight road for 116 versts, or nearly 80 miles.

The traveller who expects that on the great Siberian route he will speedily find himself plunged into semi-savagery, or that he will on leaving Europe begin to realise the solitude of a vast forlorn wilderness, will be agreeably disappointed. This great line is intended to carry forward in its progress all the comforts of modern civilisation. Every station is picturesque and even artistic. No two stations are alike in style, and all are neat, substantial, comfortable, and comparable to the best rural stations anywhere in Europe or America. In one respect Russian provision for travellers is always far in advance of that in other countries. Those familiar with the country will know at once that I refer to the railway restaurants. The Great Siberian follows the rule of excellence and abundance. There, at every station, just as on the European side of the Urals, the traveller sees, on entering the handsome dining-room, the immense buffet loaded with freshly cooked Russian dishes, always hot and

steaming, and of a variety not attempted in any other land excepting at great hotels. You select what fancy and appetite dictate, without any supervision. To dine at a railway restaurant anywhere in the Russian Empire is one of the luxuries of travel. Your dinner costs only a rouble about two shillings, and what a dinner you secure for the money! Soup, beef, sturgeon, trout, poultry, game, bear's flesh, and vegetables in profusion are supplied ad libitum, the visitor simply helping himself just as he pleases. I mention these littlə details to prove that the longest railway in the world is to push civilisation with it as it goes forward.

Readers who will glance at any map of the new line will notice that the track runs across the upper waters of the great rivers, just about where they begin to be easily navigable. This will enable the navigation of the Obi, Yenisei, and Lena to be taken advantage of for the extension of commerce throughout their entire length. When all is finished there will not in the world be so splendid a system of communication by rail and river combined as in Siberia, It is fully understood by English authorities that the great valley of the Lena will become one of the chief granaries of the world, especially for the benefit of England. Captain Wiggins, by his famous voyage round the Arctic as far as the mouth of the Yenisei, by the Kara Gulf, has already demonstrated that we can for commercial purposes tap Siberia during most of the months of the year.

All through the summer, at any rate, America and England will, by the Arctic passage and by these mighty rivers, communicate with the heart of Asia, the railway in the far interior completing the circle of commerce. Other results will follow. Siberia at present contains a population of four millions-less by more than a million than London reckons within its borders. Millions of the Russian peasantry in Europe are in a condition of chronic semi-starvation. Ere long thousands of these will weekly stream to the new Canaan in the East. Within the borders of Siberia the whole of the United States of America could be enclosed, with a great spare ring around for the accommodation of a collection of little kingdoms. In the wake of the new line towns are springing up like mushrooms. Many of these will become great cities. There are several reasons for this development. The first is that the railway runs through South Siberia, where the climate is delightfully mild compared with the rigorous conditions of the atmosphere further north. The next reason is that all the chief goldfields are in this southern latitude.

The Russian Government is, of course, in most matters of administration the narrowest and most exclusive in the world; but in some directions we must give it credit for being liberal. For instance, it has thrown open the goldfields alike to native and foreign enterprise. There is absolutely no restriction, except that all gold