Omaha daily bee., 1888-11-17

Wnich was formerly an ocean cOEneCted WIFI
| the Arctic waters. In the third place there
| is no population in Siberia amounting to any
thing, nor Is IL likely 70 attact immigration Il
the car would permit IL, which he will not
| In the fourth place the Russian wheat raised
in the Tchornosiom and exported from
Khersen and Odessa principally by German
settlers, or the descendants OF German set
tiers, is not able TO compete with American
wheat, and its production has fallen off in
consequence. Once for all Americans should
understand that Russia is so thinly popu-
lated that she is unable to contend with the
United States in the production of anything,
even petroleum. AS the present policy of
the country is to- permit no immigration, not
even of Germans, hundred years must
elapse before Russia competes with US in
anything. BY that time all existing condi-
tions will have been changed.
~
A project is on foot to connect San Diego
in lower California directly by railroad
with the City of Mexico There is in exist
snce already a railroad, branch of the
Southern Pacific which runs from Fort
Yuma to the Mexican port OF Guaymas on
the Gulf Of California. The intention is to
build road from San Diego to Fort Yuma,
and then another from Guaymas along the
coast line to Mazatlan, and thence to
Guadalaiara, which is already in connection
by rail with the capital There can be no
u
rapidly and efficiently, for San Diego has
much eastern capital behind 1t, aud none of
the sections afford any difficulties of engineer
ing liable to make great outlays inevitable.
One of the chief objects of the line is un-
dOubtedly to tap the anthracite coal beds of
Sonora, for San Diego is in great need Of
coal, and entirely dependent upon the mercics
of the Southern Pacific railway, which has
coal beds up in Washington territory. II
there was much enterprise in San Diego of
the riybt kind rnul would ~ brOIpht from
Kobe in Japan, which would be cheaper than
hauling it by rail from Sonora nearly seven
hundred miles away. But this road would
also make San Diego the market for the
beautiful woods of Mexico, ,and as the govern
ment is willing to make valuable concessions
to the company, especially of the timber
lands along the Cordileras. there will be
great profit in it. The road from Guaymas
to Guadalaiara runs parallel with the great
mountain chain on whose foothills the finest
timber grows, The company with ordinary
prudence cannot fail to make large profits,
because the logs can be cut and placed on
the car with very little expense by utilizing
hume power along a very great part of the
line.
There are some American Alpine climbers
though not many, and, indeed, the best lady
Alpinist that was ever known was Miss Bre
WORT, of New York who ascended the
Mount PelvouX and the DeuN Ecrins. But
as a rule Americans do not care particularly
for climbing up precpices and building
cairn of stones on the summit with niche
in the center for a bottle containing the
names of the party making the ascent.
With our English cousin it amounts to pas
sion, and there are Englishmen who hunt
everywhere for difficult mountains that they
may come and see and overcome. This sum-
mer one of this genus strayed into the Rus
sian mountains in the Caucasus and ascended
to the summit of Elbruz, which has a tritlng
height of Is, 526 feet. Having accomplished
this feat not only in safety, but in
comparative comfort he, Instead of
resting on his laurels and going home to be
liOnized by the Alpine CLUB, crossed from the
Black sea region of mountains to the Cas-
plan mountains on the west side in Daghes
tan. One of these called Kazbek, is sup
posed to be Mount Ararat, but it is not the
highest, for that honor belongs to the Kosh-
tan Tagh, and this mountain was the one Sc
lected by the Englishman and a colleague
for their adventure. Tney had with them
their Swiss mountain guides, but no natives
fer the Daghestani mOuntaineers refused to
go with them on account of some supersti-
tion about the Koshtan Tagh, which, in the
language of the country, bears name syn.
onimous with Yung Frau, because the ascent
to the summit has never been made. The
British consul at Batoum, and some Amer-
can and English gentlemen bade the partyGod
The Dughcstani mountaineers declare
that the Virgin of the mountain sent terrific
storm in which they must have perished.
The greatest anxiety is felt concerning
them, but it is feared that they are buried
hundreds of feet under snow, and will only
come to the surface when the ncve has be-
come glacier and melts them out i'll com
pany with the cobble stones of its moraine.
From the observations of German scen-
tist named Ham it appears that the banner
town for extreme temperature is Mercho
jansk. in Siberia. From the beginning of
December the mean temperature is fifty
eight degrees below zero, which means that
taking the theometrical readings when the
weather is not SO very bad and the readings
when the cold is abnormal, and adding them
together the mean is tiftyeight degrees be-
low zero. January and February are still
colder, and Il minimum of seventy six de-
grees below zero is common occurrence
In January, 1885, the minimum was eighty
nine degrees below zero. Yet although
these are terrible figures there is more suffer-
ing and death and loss in little Nebraska
blizzard when the mercury only sinks to
twenty nine degrees below zero than in the
whole winter of Merchojansk. The ther-
mometer only tells part of the story. In
tense cold is not hard to bear when there is
no wind, but nothing that lives can resist a
cold of twenty degrees below zero when it is
hurled onward at a rate of fifty miles an
hour In Merchoansk there is an absolute
silence of all natural sounds. The winds do
not blow, the trees do not move, the dogs do
not bark, but when muftled up warmly, men
and women do not suffer. Upon the whole
Nebraska and Dakota will contest the palm
of supremacy with Merchoiansk.
LABOR.
BY the persistent work of cigar makers