Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1876-03-29
A MIGHTY ENTERPRISES.
A Railroad Across the Eastern Con.
ment-A Great work for Musata
[From the sclentifIc American, !

lrTOm tne Scientlnc American
The great feat accomplished by the
United States in connecting the At
lantic and Pacific Oceans by rail-
road across the United States is slim
ulating enterprise in Europe; and it
is now proposed-indeed, the plan is
maturcd-to connect the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans by a railroad through
Central Asia. AT a conference of the
geographers, recently held, Colonel
Bogdanowitz explained some of the
details of the road, which it is ex-
pectcd will overcome one of the
greatest obstacles to the extension of
civilization, namely, the separation of
large part of Asia from Europe by
vast deserts, in which no means of
transit but 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 well 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 net work of European
railrods; it will run along the Volga
the Roma, to Ekaterinbourg, on the
Asiatic side of the Ural Mountains
then enter Asia, proceed i'm the direc-
ton of Treumen and Omsk at the
Irish, cross the river, proceed by way
of kainsk to Tomsk on the lem, a
branch of the Obi, and cross tina,
river. Tomsk is the principal centre
Of commerce of Western Siberia
thence the road will run directly to
Irkutsh, at Lake Baikal thence the
road is to pass to the frontier of China
and thence it is no longer an exclu.
sively Russian, but an international
undertaking.
And here, also, the only serious en-
gineering difficulties commence, Al
the mountain range of Kioghan, which
in its northern part, is crossed by the
AMOR liver. This range is the
greatest obstacle, and it will be neces
sary to pass by the Mantchooria. and
to lay the road from Baikal to Verth.
neoudinsk, through the valley of tho
Selonga. Then the best route by
which to reach Pekin, the capital o.
China, near the Yellow Sea Ga bay OF
the Northern Pacific Ocean, has beer
found TO be that of Tehita and Do
lounor. AT the southern end thu
famous great wall will be crossed j
already lies in ruins in many places
The whole distance from Mini Nov
gorod to Pckin will be 1900 miles, o
which $500 run through Russian ter
ritory.
When this plan is closely examined
according to known Typographical
data, the apparent difficulties dwindl,
down to nothing, when compared tt
those encountered in the western sec
ton of our Pacific Railroad. Til,
first section from Mini Novgorod tt
Tomsk runs on perfectly level lant
(thc so-called steppcs), similar to ON
lprairies. In the second section from
Tomsk TO Lake Baikal the country i
rolling and interspersed with river
and streams; but the greatest heigh
is only $500 feet and the largest river
are but of very moderate width ant
depth. The only serious difficulties
as we have said, lie at the Chimes,
frontier, and they are inferior to thos,
overcome in the Rocky Mountains
and the Sierra Nevada by the Amer
lean engineers. Russia has raised il
fifteen years more than SI,OOOOOO.O0'
with which TO construct 1900 mile
of railroad, and. can easily find $500,
100000 or SlO0,O00,OO0 to construct
line of such value to all the civilized
world.