Daily Kennebec journal., 1897-05-18

ters OF the officers and soldiers n,o-
vision car. smelling forge. butcher sbon
etc; in a word, a travelling village
As soon as the supply train has bssn
urloadfd the material Is aiken raDiay
forward and put in place by the work,
men. y. LeYlt saw more :han three
'7iies Of railing laid in this way IN ona
. day.
Ihe forming Of the road bed ls but a
small part of the labor in Siberia. where
tae land is so uniformly fiat Moreover
tnc lab0r-whieh consists Of the making
Of simple earthworks. undertaken bv Ia.
cal Contrdctors-is accomplished sstonlta.
neously. al a great many points. by an
army OF wOrkmen. whose number has
| been increased by $4,000 laborers during
the last few summers. This is the sea-
son when the tha wed condition Of the
ground enables them to construct the
carthWorks.
1t ls an exceptional thing for them 10
have to eXcavate trenches or build en-
| tgnkments OF any importance and IL Is
not necessary. for such simple work 10
have implements other than tne Ordinary
Ilck-aXe. shovel. wheel-bar and wood
on cart which can be procured or made
everywhere, in unlimited quantities.
As TO grading and bridge building. that
Is more difficult on account Of the short
time allowed the engineers to erec, the
essential parts. during the good season
While the great Siberian rivers are
frozen or just breaking up. il IS impos-
sible to keep floating material or com
pressed air caissons in the current
Every thing must be done in the warm
season. Fortunately. the foundations are
easily made. There is not one stone in
the immense beds of the Obi or the Yen
isei. Underneath the arabic layer OF soil
Is a continuous stratum of compact clay.
on which are placed the foundations.
1ne largest bridge is that almost a
mile long. over the Yensei.
one of the most interesting features Of
the Trans-Siberian Is crossing Lake
Baikal. Later on when there is time
tracks viii be laid around the southern
extremity of the lake. but at present
the trains must cross in some way. from
Listr.n;Za to MOuissoVa. on the eastern
shore But the distance between these
TWO points is almost ten miles. and even
Russian engineers would hardly think
of erecting a bridge there.
However. the trains must cross 50 they
carry them on boats built especially for
the purpose and which make the trip
from Listriniza to Mouissova, even in
winter, for an open channel is cut in the
ice. by means of ice breakers. modelled
after those which actually force pas
sage to the Port of Nladivostok, In the
heaviest winter season.
East of Lake Baikal. the tracks ae
tually in process Of construction end at
Stretyinsk. n town at the navlgable ter
minus of the Chilka, a northern branch
of the Ameer river. In order to arrive
there the road must cross the mountains
of Yablonoi
II was necessary that they should pass
the crest without a tunnel and with
grade nc, exceeding half inch to a yard
in the ascent BY this gradient, the
highest point they reached was Sll2 feet
above the level of the sea. the difference
in altitude from that of Lake Baikal
which is laI4 feet. being 225s feet for an
increase of 100 versts.
From Stretyinsk the old road followed
the valley of The Amoor as far as khab-
arovka. and then turned south toward
Vladivostok. forming an immense curve
through a country where traffic was al