Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1876-04-20
A Mighty Enterprise.

The great feat accomplished by the
United States in connecting the At
lantic and Pacific oceans, by a rail-
road across the United States, is
stimulating enterprises in Europe,
and it is now proposed-indeed. the
plan is matured-to connect the At
lantic and Pacific oceans by a rail-
road through Central Asia At "a con-
ference of the geographers, recently
held. Col. Bogdanowitz explained
some of the detail of the road, which.
it is expected, will overcome one of
the greatest obstacles to the extern
sion Of civilization, namely, the sep
aration Of a large part of Asia from
Europe by vast deserts, in which no
means OF transit but a railroad could
be of any use. A railroad alone can
develop the resources Of the many
lands through which it would pass;
and, as the mineral wealth OF Siberia
and the Ural mountains is we'll
known, the exploration and mining
Of these regions would be encouraged
and their resources developed.
1t is proposed that the road shall
start from Mini Novgorod, in Russia,
where is now the extreme eastern
station in the network OF European
railroads.: it will rum along the VOL
ga, the Kama, to Ekatorinbourg, on
the Asiatic side Of the Ural noun
tains, then enter Asia, proceed in the
direction OF Troumen and Omsk at
the Irish, cross the river, and pro-
ceed by way OF Kainsk to Tomsk on
the Tom, a branch of the Obi, and
cross that river. Tomsk is the prin-
cipal center Of commerce Of western
Siberia; thence the road will run di-
rectly to Irkutsk at Lake Raikal.
Thence the road is to pass to the
frontier OF China. and thence it is no
longer an exclusively Russian, but an
international undertaking.
And here, also, the only serious en-
gineering difficulties commence at
the mountain range OF bingham,
which, in its northern part, Is crossed
by the Amoor. river. This range is
the greatest obstacle. and 1t will be
necessary to pass by the Montchooria
and to lay the road from Baikal to
verhneoudonk. through the valley OF
the Selenga. Then the best route by
which to reach Pekin, the capital OF
China, near the Yellow Sea Ga bay OF
the Northern Pacific Ocean,, has been
found to be that OF Tehita and Dolou
nor. At the southern end the famous
great wall will be crossed; it already
lies in ruins in many places. The
whole distance from Nijni-Novgorod
to Pekin, will be $500 miles, of which
$500 run through Russian terri
tory.
When this plan is closely examined,
according to data, the apparent diff
culties dwindle down to nothing when
compared to those encountered in
western sections OF our Pacific rail-
road. The first section from Mini
Novogorod to Tomsk, runs on per-
fectIy level land (the so-called step
pes) similar to our prairies. In the
section from Tomsk to Lake Baikal,
the country is rolling and interspers-
ed with rivers and streams, but the
greatest height is only $500 feet, and
the largest river areas but OF very
moderate width and depth. The only
serious difficulties as we have said,
lie at the Chinese frontier, and they
are inferior to those overcome in the
Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Ne
vada by the American engineers
Russia has raised in fifteen years
more than 81 1000, 100000 with which
to construct $1,000 miles OF railroad,
and can easily find $500, 100000 or.
$4O0, 100000 to construct line of such
value to all the civilized world.-Sci-
entitic american.