The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1888-12-01
OPENING SIBERIA.


lines to Samarcand on the south, and
to Tyumen in western Siberia, gives
promise of the eventual gridironing of
northern Asia. The latest report is
that an American syndicate is to re-
ceive subsidy from the Russian gov
ernment for building lines reaching
across the country to the mouth of
the Amoor. Americans have done
great deal of railroad building in
Russia and American locomotives have
found favor there, and it is likely
enough that American engineering
skill and enterprise may be called to
the work of opening communication
across Siberia, but that the govern
ment will let ownership and control
out of its hands is not probable. The
object of building the road is largely
military and political. The Amoor
and Pacific coast provinces are now
practically isolated from western
Siberia and Russia in Europe. They
border China, and there is no natural
boundary of mountains and desert
separating them from the Chinese
province of Manchuria, as is the case
further west. Russian colonization,
conquest and defense call for closer
communication. The value of the
port and naval station of Vladivo
stock, at the mouth of the Amoor, is
also belittled by its remoteness and
inaccessibility from the main empire.
The commercial Importance of the
proposed road is also great. Siberia,
except in its northern portion, is
naturally productive country. 1t
has large tracts of good grain land,
boundless pastures and its mineral
and timber resources are immense.
At present this natural wealth is mac
cessible except by the slow and costly
process of team transportation, and
by river communication during part
of the year. The great rivers Obi,
Yenesei and Lena, with their tribu-
taries, flow northward to the Arctic
ocean, and even in summer steam
communication from Europe along
the northern coast to their mouths is
difficult and often impossible on ac-
count of ice. Plans have been formed
for improving the river navigation
and for a canal system, but these
works can only in part compensate
for the lack of rail communication.
The manufacturing industries of
the provinces of Tobolsk and Tomsk,
in western and central Siberia, are
already considerable. There are, ac-
cord1ng to official reports, 2,300 fac
tories, which employ 1880 men and
produce goods genually to the value
of about S11 100000. Tanneries and
tallow factories account for about
half of this product, the remainder
being worked up from raw vegetable
material. The mineral resources are
almost untouched. These industries
are the growth of the last fifteen
years, during which time modern ma
chinery has been introduced, and the
completion of rail communication to
Tyumen has stimulated business.
The completion of the road to the
Pacific will largely develop the Chi
nese trade. The overland traffic in
tea and other Chinese goods is now
great, but the cost of transportation
is enormous. 1t is carried on almost
exclusively by camel trains across
Mongolia, and its difficulty and ex-
pense have led Russian merchants to
project portable tramway acr'ss the
plains, the motive power 10 be canels,
but enabling 10000 to do the work
which now requires $4,000. With the
railroad completed, steamers would
convey tea from Hankow to VladiYo-
stock, and thence it would go by rail
to all parts of the empire.
From an engineering point of view
there are few obstacles to the pro-
posed system, except the bridging OF
the great rivers and the passage of
the vast swamps of western Siberia,
which will render that part of the line
expensive. There are no steep grades
to be surmounted. The distance
from Tyumen to Vladiyostock is $3.50
miles by the proposed route, and the
cost of construction is estimated at
from s375,OOO,OOO to S525,O0O,OOO
These are large figures, but not suffi-
cient to appal modern enterprise, es-
pecially when they stand for the open
ing of vast region rich in resources
The result of railroad extension in
our western territories in building up
the country is an earnest of what may
follow like enterprise in Siberia. Al
though Russia in Europe in usually
spoken of as thinly settled fcountry,
the density of its population to the
square mile averages more than twice
that of the limited States. and the