The evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1914-1922, 1918-11-04
THE MURMANSK RAILROAD
An American built Road in the Arctic-Why the Germans
Should Find 1t Hard to Flank Il.

When u boys are not fighting. they
can tish n shoot. There IN the same
lack Of all roads. The sparse reindeer
trails reindeer sledded in the first
French ammunition arc the best the
Herman viii find In that respect From
Lake Omega north there are the same
lakes ard marshes. For hundreds OF
miles indeed, the marsh belt between
the railroad and Finland ~ virtually
~uhbrokcn And Il marsh" said Han
ntbal, TWO thousand years ago. lis Of
all things accused In war" Where,
IN those russian marshes. there are a
fcw labNrinthine caus.ways, only the
wolves seem able to thread them. And
the wolves abound To protect their
horses and cattle In summer. the ma
lives herd them on tho islands found
Ia the bigger lakes. Aud when, dur
INK the building of the road. certain
German prisoners. used In the con
structiun gangs, awaited themselves of
their working liberty to run for 1t. IA
general two days or 80 most th'ee
proved enough to bring them back
again.
Where the lee u lad
MI this, however. rs true only VI the
summer IN fact, south of Lake one
KS II isn't true 1t all what of the
winter when sulid ice should furnish
road beds la both cases the railroad
h. vulnerable. But. as viii be seen.
N II Il vulncrahility that need give "a
little cause To worry.
The Murmausk IL sub-arctic only
Ia a geographical sense The last
reaches ~ tine CUR Stream modify the
climate, and there is more snow than
ice. ON the large lakes the gradually
accommodating weight Of snow often
forces IN" ice beneath the water.
which canHo make Tor the best of
military thurOuEhfdrcs. Even in the
marshes half the invading army would
hc kept busy digging out the other
half And finally. even II u German
army did get through II could stay
only FOR the winter. From February
to November It's connection with its
base would be severed absolutely Dur
ing the months Of ce-sledding It
might of course pile NJ supplies and
munitions enough to carry II through
the rest OF the year. Hut under the
strain and drain ~ modern fighting
that IN unlikely HenCcforward. too.
the prussian military imagination will
probably be less sanguine than II pre-
vlopsiy has been.
So much FOR the regions north Of
Lake Omega what OF the country
Ia the south of IL From P~etrosovosk
on the lake the NE continues south
10 SVanka, llt kilometres east OF Pet
rograd Between junction ana capital
all * one opcn plain, and the Ger
mans MAY now reach ~IetTugrad at
any time could tt.ey get across tho
MuTmansk road from there"
The 1000 Ton Barge To the I,c-cuc.
They could For again extending
miles below Lake omega there are
marshes. Furthermore, once We and
the allies reach the lake, We shall NJ
longer need rail transportation From
the castern-thc protected sid OF
omega opens the first of BussiB's great
interior canals. Their huge steel
bargcs have always been her main
freight carriers They arc among
those things which revolutions do not
destroy They a." 'lmost as numer-
Gus as Americas coal aud ore gon-
tolas. And whore the latter carry
their fifty tons, Russia harges carry
q thousand An are self powered. too
They MAJ he easily armed. The ga
mails on which they move reach all
Russia, from the Gulf Of Finland To
the Black sca and the caspian. We
may yet read that Company --of the
United States marines got upon the,
cneniy's flank with terrific effeTt by
arriving suddenly al high speed In -
armor-d barge, from the direction Of
Odessa,
In. the meantime the marines are
somewhere In northern Russia. and
should be heard OF first from there.