Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-07-26

lar to that of the upper Mississippi valley
before the Louisiana purchase.
Russia has lately obtained the control
of the valley of the Amoor to its mouth,
and it will at once become the channel of
an extensive commerce, not with the East
alone, but with the Pacific slope of Amer
lea. Siberia is traversed from north to
south by navigable rivers, which empty,
however, into the Arctic ocean; but so
soon as the trade of these streams is car
ried on by steam vessels changes will take
place, such as have occurred on our West
ern rivers, and these changes, united, as
ultimately they will be, by railways point
ing eastward and toward the valley of the
Amoor, will pour into the Sea of Japan
the mineral and other productions of
Southern and Central Siberia, and the
northern provinces of China, and bear
back from other lands the means of COM
fort and civilization to the heart of North
ern Asia. On the shores of California and
Oregon, and at the mouth of the Amoor,
and in the Sea of Japan, Russians and
Americans will meet for the exchange of a
mutual commerce, remote from the rest of
Europe.
We shall scarcely overestimate the i'm
portance of the trade which, at no remote
period, will flow to and from Southern
Siberia, and the adjacent provinces re-
Gently added to the Russian territory, if
we may credit distine uished English
writer, who declares that the immense
plains, (which stretch to the eastward
along the banks of the Amoor are capable
of containing all the nations of Christen-
dom in comfort and afiuence" Again,
by her possessions upon upon the Black
Sea, she is placed in direct communication
with the commerce of the Mediterranean,
and through the Mediterranean she has a
third channel connecting her with the
general trade of the world
In this calculation, no notice is taken of
her long line of sea coast on the Arctic
Ocean. In those frozen regions it possesses
less commercial Importance. A country
so vast as Russia could scarcely touch the
sea more advantageously than she does,
resting in the east on the Pacific, lying in
the west along the Atlantic, for the Baltic
and the Gulf of Finland are to her as the
Atlantic sea coast, while along the south
ern frontier of her European territory
, stretches the Black Sea.
Russia and America are the only two
powers of the earth that might become
great nations if shut out from the rest of
the world, and, therefore, the efforts of all
other nations cannot long or materially
obstruct the growth of either Both are
impregnable on their own soil, and both
may securely develop their exhaustless in
ternal resources without the possibility OF
being prevented by any. The two coun-
frIn also intc nf
resemblance in the natural facilities which
both possess for internal communication,
, as well as for the construction of artificial
channels for travel and for trade Russia
can boast of no such magnificent chain oI
internal seas as those of North America,
/ but she has the Caspian, 800 miles long
on the east the Black sea along the cen.
tral portion Of her. southern frontier in
Europe, and the Baltic and the Gulf OF
Finland, atfording her long line of what
may be called inland sea-coast, in the
northwest, while her whole territory is
covered, almost equally with the Amer.
ican continent, by network of nayigable
rivers. In addition to these natural ave-
nues of commerce, the nature of the coun.
try presents almost unrivaled facilities fol
the construction of artificial connections,
whether canals or roads.
Russia may be regarded as one vast
plain, reaching from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and intersected by few mountain
ranges, so that no obstacle is presented to
the establishment of railways in any re.
quired direction, while the material 10,
such structures exist in abundance. Both
in the United States and Russia, therefore,
fanrI taI 60 l..
growth, the cultivation of an individual
and independent national life.
Ehrman, in describing the mines of the
Ural Mountains and the amount of iron
! annually produced, states the line of river
navigation from the mining region to st.
Petersburg, to be $3.50 miles. He also
mentions that from the Upper Volga from
1000 to 5000 barges descend annually to
! st. Petersburg by canal connecting with
the Neva, and when we consider that iron
from the Ural destined to European Rus
sia requires about 1000 boats annually,
carrying each nearly 100 tons at the com.
mencement of the voyage, the cargo being
increased at certain point below, we may
form an idea of the amount of the present
internal commerce of Russia. Nor must
we forget that this rude trade is yet al.
most entirely carried on in such rude boats
as few years since foated on the Mississ.
ippi and Ohio, and it is not, therefore, too
much to anticipate that in the future
progress of Russia, and in period not re-
! mote, such a change may be wrought by
the introduction of steam vessels upon her
rivers as we have already seen from this
cause in the Mississippi valley.
Sha hoe haO,1,, aA taI -
one of her great trunk lines of railway in.
! tended to concentrate upon her capital
! and 1t is in progress and nearly finished tc
Z Odessa. Let but this be carried from Mos
/ COW eastward to the valley of the Amoor
! an enterprise equal to our own Pacific
railway, and then a trunk line will con
meet Moscow with the East Indian seas
( and from Moscow one branch will pas.
westward to st. Petersburg and the other
southwark toward Constantinople, striking
! the Black Sea at Odessa. These lines
would cross the whole system of the navi.
! gable rivers of the empire, and would be
! to Russian commerce, both foreign anC
domestic, what the Pacific road and it.
/ branches will be to the United States
passing the Ural and its boundless minera
wealth midway, as the American road will
the Rocky mountain. No one doubts thai
the American railway will be completed
at no distant period, and who that consid
ers the past progress and present power o
Russia shall say that she will not also con
struct a Pacific railway, aided by Ameri
can skill and experience.
| This, for Russia, would only be to con
struct the modern iron road, with steam
carriages, along the old highway of hel
eastern commerce, and certainly it woult
be an instructive sight to the boastfu
powers of Western Europe if the two ma
tions who have been the chief object o
their ridicule-one as barbarian and th'
other as composed of backwoodsmen-
should ere long present them with on,
continuous line of railway and ocean steam
navigation, reaching around the globe ant
turning the commerce of the East through
1 the heart of America and Russia Surh .