Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-10-09

winters this snowfall is so heavy as to practically prevent the natives from hunting for weeks at a time, and it not infrequently drives the deer and other animals that subsist on vegetation to extreme measures to secure food. Now this railroad would of necessity have to run through river basins, valleys and other low places, and along mountain sides. And in doing this it could not escape being buried under vast deposits of snow frequently for months at a time and not improbably for occasional periods of fifteen to otwenty months duration. Neither sun sheds nor any other protection or guard that human skill can at present devise could with stand these immense snowfalls of the arctic regions. Then with the melting snow of springtime it would be impos- sible to protect any railway against torrents that I have seen on hillsides and in lowlands in these regions.
 So though the railroad may be pos sible of construction even to Cape Prince of Wales, do not believe it could be possible of maintenance and operation except at rare intervals, and then only by constant and expensive repairs.
 And what is true of the nature of the country of northwestern Alaska is equally true of northeastern Siberia. A large expanse in the heart of Siberia consists of steppes or plains, which at times are buried deep under the snow and swept by fierce and terrific arctic winds.
 Another by far the greatest barrier of all has not been dwelt upon, and that is bridging the straits.
 From cape to cape the distance across Behring straits is about thirty-eight miles. Near the center of the straits are two islands, the larger of which, Ratmanof island, would be in the line of the proposed bridge, and it's use would save five to eight miles of bridge building. But it would be equally as expensive as the bridge in working, as it is mountain of rock and would have to be tunnelled or cut extensively for the railway to cross it. In addition the snow barrier would be even greater here than on either shore. Still, to cross the island is possible. And as the straits are not deep, hardly reaching thirty fathoms in any place, piers for the bridge could be built without en- countering insurmountable obstacles. Hence the bridge like the railroad is possible of construction. But how about the maintenance of it?
 In summer the winds in the straits are almost invariably from the south and the currents have, therefore, a northerly trend. On the other hand in winter the winds are mostly from the north, and the currents, therefore, l flow southerly. With a wind blowing from the south ice foes go northward ! while with the winds from the north vast foes of ice are carried down through the straits. At times this mass of ice is immense and irresistible ir progress. When one of the usual ter rife northern gales of winter is blow l ing and foes of hundreds of square l miles in area of heavy arctic ice arc 1 running before the wind and tanning their way through the straits with prac tically all the pressure of the vast and measureless north pack back of it, it i: not within the limits of human ingenu ity to build piers massive or strong enough to withstand this pressure
 During a fearful gale this pressure ii beyond all possible conception. Moth ing but the solid earth itself, like the mountain peaks, on the islands and or l the adjacent shores could withstand it
 and even they tremble under it.
 As for ferry instead of a bridge al
 the straits, it could only be operated during about three months in the year | and then there would be occasional in tervals of days at time when crossing from shore tO shore would be impossi
 ble on account of the ice jams and foes
 Such scheme as this Cosmopolitan
 railway is of no use to the world of to
 day if it is not practicable, and thinl
 have shown conclusively that it is not
 practicable. The commercial and othe1
 needs of the world do not call for tho
 building of such a road now, but whe1
 these needs do call for such road some
 far more feasible scheme will super
 cede it just as the Atlantic cable pre-
 vented the building of the overland tel | egraph line. HERBERT l.. ALDRICH. CARRIES HIS OWN TOOLS. \ A~w.kAvSoxna 0Id HUt,o Erin