The Cordova daily times., 1919-01-30


fish and fresh meat. 1t is expected
that storage will be afforded for 100.
900 tons of coal and for $4,000 tons
of beans, and that there will be cold
storage warehouses for great part
of the fish catch of the Amur basin
The middle arm. 1000 feet long and
$50 feet wide, will serve for trans
shipment from river steamers To
ocean-going steamers and vice versa
The shore arm will be devoted to
handling goods for the town itself
The three arms and the perpendicu
lar leg will inclose an outer and an
inner basin. the former dredged to a
depth of forty feet. They will be con,
nected with the main channel of the
river by a channel twenty-five feet
deep and not less than $50 feet in
width.
raft harbor / 400 feet wide and
dredged to five feet will adjoin the
sawmill pier on the west and will be
protected against wave action by a
chain of piles and log booms. In case
the expansion of the lumber industry
requires it, a second pier for sawmills
can be constructed parallel to the
first. beyond the raft harbor
The piers are to be constructed
by driving piles and building cribs
md filling with dredged material. As
timber for piles is cheap, it was ex.
pected that these improvements would
cost not more than $1,000 900. but
probably the estimate was much too
conservative.
The capacity of the port is esti--
mated at 445O, 900 tons during a navi.
CATION season of about five or six
months.
Owing to the war, to lack of money
ana TO general causes. work on these
improvements has progressed very
slowly. Piling has begun on the ex-
IRENE eastern point of the southern
pier and four godowns (warehouses)
have been built, but there is no con.
nection with the land The channel
up to this island pier is now reported
to be eighteen feet deep. Two go
downs have also been built on the
shore opposite the proposed northern
arm OF the f, and there are two go
downs on the end of the tongue of
land at the entrance Of the natural
basin
Disadvantages Of Port of Nikoiaievsk
But the port of Nikolaicysk suffers
also from other disadvantages. At
low water the Amur river aCcommo-
dates vessels drawing only up to
twelve feet, so that scagoing vessels
of deeper draft have to transship their
cargo at DE Castri harbor in the Tar
tary strait. From De Castri the chan
mel passes through the Amur Liman
to the Amur river and the Sea of
Okhotsk. 1t is proposed, however,
that the bar in the northern channel
OF the Amur shall be deepened so
that vessels of twenty-four-foot draft
may reach NikolGievsk. 1t is expected
that Nikolaievsk will then become the
most important port of transshipment
of fish products from the Sea of Ok
hotsk and from kamchatka, will be an
important river Coaling station, and
VIII be able to accommodate a large
part of the Manchurian bean export
trade. beginning of the develop
ment of the timber resources of the
Amur territory may also be antici
pated.
Further drawbacks to navigation
on the lower Amur are the scarcity
of qualified pilots and the necessity
OF removing the river markings in
the autumn before the river freezes
and Of delaying the restoration of
the markings to their proper places
until after the ice has been cleared
from the river in the spring The
erection OF permanent shore mark
ings and lighthouses would extend the
period of navigation several weeks in
both spring and autumn. Some steps
to this end have been taken.
Anticipated Trade Development
The chief articles of import at
Nikolaievsk now are salt tea, iron,
foodstuffs flour, rice, barley, greats
and sugar., machinery, coal and kero-
sene. Most OF the imports are transit
goods for distribution up the river
and to the fishing stations north of
the Amur At present there is con
siderable railway traffic from Vladi-
vostok to Khabarovsk, where goods
are transshipped to Nikolaievsk by
river. 1t is hoped that with the i'm.
provement OF the river and the har-
Dor of Nikolaievsk there will be a
rapid development OF going traf.
fic and that the Amur river will be
able to carry from Nikolaievsk and
not merely from Khabarovsk a large
mart nf the impnrf nnyamnnt into G;