The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-09-06

emigrants by the thousands I under stand that Russia Is quietly planting col onles along the Chinese Eastern railroad ana that she will eventually Russianize Manchuria. These colonies will also do enective work in time of war supplying provisions and perhaps men.
 Russia's Great Ice Breakers.
 In addition to her merchant vessels ana men-of-war Russia has now some of the most effective ice-breaking steamers of the world. She has enormous float ing machines run by steam which will crush the ice of the harbors and force their way into almost any port. Kron- stadt Is kept open during the winter by such Ice breakers, and they will also be or great value at Vladivostock and other Siberian ports.
 The largest of these vessels is the Er- mak, built in 1898 at Newcastle-on-Ty Tyne It is like huge man-of-war being as long as the average city block, as wide as the ordinary city street and a depth as great as that of a four-story house. It mas draft of twenty-five feet and a displacement of 5000 tons. Its machinery Is operated by engines furnishing 100O horse power. and when 1t pushes against Ice with this enormous force the ice has to be indeed thick to resist it. The Err max Is so shaped at the stern that an- other vessel can be lashed to it. so that 1t will have the assistance and additional power of the vessel behind. It has forty elght water-tight compartments, the larger of which have engines and boiler rooms. the capacity of each boiler room being 20OO tons.
 Two Hundred Miles Through Solid
 Ice.
 The Ermak has been severely tested. | Il through solid ice. all of it being at least five feet thick and fifty miles of it about ten rect in thickness. In blowing through thls IL hurled the ice aside as a locomo- uVe plow throws snow, cutting its way right into the harbor of Kronstadt.
 Such Ice breakers will make Vladivos- tock an open port during the winter. fur nishing new outlet for war supplies via the Trans-Siberian road. There are ice breakers on Lake Baikal which keep the Trans Siberian road open, although in case of trouble tracks can be laid on inc ice and communication thus be kept I'D. With Lake Baikal open it is now only seventeen or eighteen days from Moscow to Port Arthur, where the harbor is free from ice the year round, and where ships drawing thirty feet can enter without difficulty.
 The Russians have built up a great naval station St Port Arthur. This is on ly a few miles from Dalny. the commer- cial port. at the end of the Trans Siberian road. They have an enormous amount of naval supplies there. and they are. am told. now ready for war if Japan is anx- ious to fight
 The Japanese Navy.
 The navy of Japan is c greater wonder than that of Russia. The Russians have h navy since the days of Peter the Great The Japanese navy has been built up within the present generation. Dur ing our civil war the Japanese knew nothing of naval affairs outside their war junks and for ten years thereafter they had no merchant vessels to speak of When they fought the Chinese in 1894 their navy consisted of sixteen steel men of-war seventeen gunboats of wood and steel and about twenty-six torpedo boats. They had good guns and they fired them