The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1918-10-31
HE Murman coast, which
Germany, with the aid of
Finland, has been trying

ian Lapland, being the coast of
what is known as the Kola penin-
sula.
The origin of the name Murman
is doubtful, but it is probable that
it is corruption of Norman ii. e.,
Norwegian the district being ada
cent to Norway. The Russian Gus
tom is to change the capital N of a
borrowed word into M, so that
Norman" would naturally become
in Russian, Norman" The MUIR
man coast is of immense import
ance to Russia, since it contains an
excellent harbor which is free from
ice all the year round-the deep
inlet usually called the Gulf of
Kola, but now frequently termed
the Gulf of Murman.
The region has definitely belong
ed to Russia for some five centuries,
and it is extraordinary that no at
tempt was long made to utilize it
for commercial purposes. 1t was,
of course, very remote from the
then center of Russia at Moscow,
and the difficulties of communicat-
ion in virgin country, even now
devoid of roads, probably deferred
poverty-stricken and slowly pro-
crossing Russia from opening a
route to it. 1t also lay close to the
Swedish frontier (the Swedish en-
pire included Finland up to 1909
and the district was frequently
raided by Swedish brigands and
guerrillas. In 1888 the mission
ary Metrofan (St. Tryphon) found
ed thefamous monastery Petchenga;
but in 1890, seven years after his
death, this outpost of civilization
was sacked by the Swedes and its
occupants massacred to the accom-
paniment of fiendish tortures. The
anarchy of Russia during the early
seventeenth century prevented COL
onizing efforts. For centuries
Russia was content with Archangel,
icebound for half the year, as her
single outlet to the north; and in
the nineteenth century large sums
were expended upon the improve
ment of that unsatisfactory port,
while the ice-free Murman coast
was neglected.
This state of things lasted until
the beginning of the twentieth CEN
tury, when a naval station was tard-
lily installed at Ekaterina harbor,
a bay at the mouth of the Gulf of
Kola. A railway to connect this
single ice-free Russian port with
Petrograd was projected, but, in
the usual dilatory Russian fash
ion. remained a project until
the early part of 1915. Then the
closing of the entrances to the Black
Sea, and the consequent isolation of
Russia, awakened the allies to the
necessity of utilizing the port, and
with feverish energy the railway
was pushed forward across the 700
miles of wild and desolate country
forest, lake. mountain, and snowy
steppe-which lie between Petro-
grad and Kola. Thousands of
workmen were levied to construct
it, and in little more than year
communication was established.
But the mortality among the work
men was enormous, as was unhap-
PLY too frequently the case with the
gigantic engineering feats which
excited our admiration in Russia.
The railway runs through Kola,
at the head of the gulf, and termin-
ates at Romanov or Murmansk,
some distance further on. This
place was in 1914 a small fishing
hamlet, but has by now grown into
a place of some {, 200 inhabitants.
In the present chaotic state of
Russian administration it is COVER
ned by seven distinct councils or