The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-07-06
THE ALASKA RAILROAD.

The subject of bridging Behring Straits
is coming up again in lively manner.
Charles l.. Colby, with party of engineers
from New York, is said to have gone to
Alaska to examine the ground; General
Butterfield is reported to be representing
the project at St Petersburg, and Governor
Gilpin is drawing attention to it in this
State by conversations with all who take
an interest in the subject. It is evident
that the pros and cons are in fair way of
being ventilated. Behring Straits may per-
haps become as familiar topic of discus
sion as it was in the old days, before the
Atlantic cable was laid, when company
was formed to connect Russia and the
United States by telegraph line via
Alaska and Siberia.
In these days nothing seems impossible.
Railroad builders can be found who will
take a contract to build line between
almost any two points on the globe. But
the bodest builder would be appalled, at
the prospect of having to connect Fort
Wrangel with Cape Prince of Wales by rail.
Greater distances have been covered. To
lay rails on over eco miles of latitude by
forty degrees of longitude in that meridian
would be no unequaled feat; but when il
is rene mbeTed that these rails would have
to be laid in large part on soil which is
frozen for ten months in the year, and is
often covered with snow to depth of forty
feet, it will be perceived that the construc-
ton of the Canadian Pacific was chiId's
play in comparison. Nor is this all. On
those parts OF the Alaska coast where the
normal severity Of the climate is tempered
by tile japanese warm current and the
warm. rains which it brings the shore line
is iniersected at very short intervals by
streams, arms of the sea and rivers, which
would require an endless succession of
bridges. Beyond Mount ST. Elias we have
no kno Wedge of the nature of the country
which the line would have to traverse, ex-
cept that il is mountainous; that the
mountains are high, and that the ground is
snOwclad except for a few weeks in sum-
mer. Whether there exists a practicable
route for a railroad from Mount ST. Elias to
the Yukon, and thence northwardly to the
straits the most learned geographer is IN
able to state. The country is as unknown
as the other side of the moon.
H. however, we assume that surveys by
competent engineers should determine that
the proposed railroad is not absolutely i'm
possible, it would next deVolve on its pro-
motors to demonstrate that it would be of
some use after il was built. And it may
not be out Of place to state the obvious
proposition that the Office of railroads is to
carry freight and passengers. Ii there are
no freight and passengers to be carried, the
railroad would be as much without a raison
d'etre as warming-pan in the South Sea
Islands. And it is difficult to discover
where passengers and freight could be
found for an Alaska-Siberian line. Those
two inhospitable sections of the world have
nothing to exchange, and no people to en-
gage in travel. Freight from sources more
remote could not afford the cost of so much
transportation. Some wild Briton, pant
ing for adventure, might undertake to work
his way from the United States to Russia
by travelling eight CT nine thousand miles
in a railrOad-car through Arctic SHOWS.
But the mass of mankind could not be in
duced to endure such hardship by anything
short of a decree of a penal court. The
road, if built, would have neither freight
nor passengers. 1t would be as purely
ornamental as the Thames Tunnel.
Persons who let their fancy run riot Oh
such schemes as this point to the Siberian
Railway as an instance Of what human en-
ergy can accomplish. But they should not
forget that that is military and not COM
mercal enterprise. Russia will build 10
Vladivostock, if she can raise the money,
not-as is sometimes said-to develop the
resources of Siberia, but to protect her
Asiatic dominion against British and Chi
nese encroachments. The road would ena,
BILE her to throw an army upon any menaced
point on her long southern frontier, or to
concentrate force for the invasion of the
territories of her southern neighbors. For
any other purpose the line would be use
less And 1t is as we'll to remember that. in
spite of ali the newspaper talk the public
have heard, the road is not built, and pos
siby may never be-