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Show 2fre iabion! 6eofrfk,i iocaty Part of the Harbor of Vladivostok. When the Siberian railway was pushed through at the end of the Nineteenth century and the gigantic "cut-off" was made through Manchuria, Man-churia, it set things back on tbe Amur for a while. But after the Husso-Jap-anese war, Russia's hold on Manchuria wus weakened and the empire began building the western bnlf of the grent railroad Just north of the Amur where it would be entirely on Muscovite territory. ter-ritory. Tremendous hardships were encountered In traversing bogs and forests and crossing great rivers; but the Job wus about completed when tbe World war broke out This long r (Prepared by the National Oeorraphle kSoclaty. Wainlortou, D. O USSIA'S Far Eastern probleru lies at the end of the world's longest railway, the Trans-Siberian. It was s tremendous task to build this railway, and It has been equally a great task at times to keep it In efficient operation, Tbe distance from the Pacific terminus ter-minus at Vladivostok to Moscow is 5,-391 5,-391 miles, and to Pctrogrud S.481. Much of the road ts still single track, and the tremendously heavy traffic of the war years levied a heavy toll oo both equipment and roadbed. While In the main grades are fair, yet It Is not to be expected that on s road ot such length these could be compared to the grades obtaining on our own principal lines. The result ts conv - paraUvely short trains, many etigines, and slow progress. Fast trains now require about ten days for the trip from Moscow to the Pacific, when they traverse the Chinese Eastern tracks through Manchuria. On leaving Moscow, the Trnns-SI-berlun road runs through about 800 miles of the great western plain of European Itussla to the city of Ufa at tbe foot of the Ural mountains. Some 520 miles east of Moscow Is a pyramid on the one side of which is Inscribed the word "Europe," and on the opposite side the word "Asia." This pyramid stands on the very apex of the Urals. The railroad at this point is 1,850 feet above sen level. Between Be-tween Ufa and Tchelyhlnsk the road rises from 810 feet elevation to 1.850 feet and drops back ngnln to 700 feet. At the latter place are huge wooden borracks where Immigrants entering Siberia were quartered In prewar times, waiting for railroad transpor. tatlon. Across the vast stretches of western Siberia the Trans-Siberian railroad passes grassy steppes inhabited by horse-breeding KIrghlves, through long reaches of virgin forest, and through many Important agricultural regions. Grossing out of the Tomsk government Into that of Yeniseisk, the road shortly short-ly reaches Atcblnsk, tbe northernmost town on the railroad. Its latitude is the same as that of the middle coast of Labrador. Indeed, at no time after I it leaves Moscow until It enters Man- I churia does the Trans-Siberian ever touch further south than the northern I coast of Newfoundland. stretch of railway paralleling the Amur from .10 to 75 miles north of it Is a valuable asset to the Amur region. Blugoveshchensk, on the middle Amur, and connected with the Amur railway by a branch line, Is the metropolis me-tropolis of the province, a town of about 45,000 inhabitants. Spread out along the river bank, with Its spires and domes showing against the skyline. sky-line. It makes an Imposing appearance to the traveler on the river especially since it contrasts so noticeably with the little river towns. Across the rlv. er is a Chinese town known locally as Sukalin, but appearing under numerous numer-ous aliases on the maps. Many of Sakalln's Inhabitants, too, have their aliases, for It Is a haven for smugglers. At the eastern end of the Trans-Siberian railway, by whichever route one goes, lies Vladivostok, "Mistress of the East." In some ways It can be compared com-pared to San Francisco, at the end of our "Trans-American" lines, more particularly par-ticularly in the hitter's earlier Bar-bury Bar-bury coast days. Vladivostok Is younger than the city by the Golden Gate, It wus founded In I860.. Had Its normnl development not been Interrupted by the World war and the unsettled conditions that have followed, Vladivostok might soon bave rivaled our own coast city In population popula-tion and beauty. Life In Vladivostok. A tongue of hilly land thrust out Into In-to a land-locked bay constitutes the site of the city. The architecture maintains the European note struck by the station; which makes the pres. ence of Oriental people, conveyances and customs all the more exotic. You no sooner accustomed vourself to the dreary routine of bazaar buying, flourishing flour-ishing lotteries and bahel of tongues than you encountered the more familiar famil-iar telegraph office, motion picture theater, the-ater, museum, club and university. You might dodge a European racing car, under an American electric light, and run plump Into a coolie burden bearer despite the warning cries of a Russian policeman. The "Golden Horn" restaurant was the rendezvous of bon vivants of the world. The life of Vladivostok has changed greatly since those days, and none of the old prosperity pros-perity Is apparent Small wonder living was extremely dear in the old days and is dearer now, since the city subsisted formerly on supplies from China and Japan, Europe, and even America. Its growth seems due to some Inexplicable exception excep-tion that proves the rule that a city, to succeed, should be self-sustaining, interchange products with the country around It, be thrifty, cultivate civic consciousness, be well governed, and possess some racial, cultural, or patriotic pa-triotic unity. It owed Its commerce to the fact that It was the most nearly Ice-free port of Siberia, by which virtue vir-tue It became the terminus of the Trans-Siberian railway, and to the military and naval establishments maintained by the government of the Tsar. I Many Tunnels and Bridges. i By tbe time it reaches Lake Baikal, It has climbed again to 1,500 feet, and In skirting that body of water has to pass through forty tunnels, through numerous giant cuts and over many bridges. It continues to climb until It reaches Sokhondo, 3,100 feet, where It penetrates a tunnel bearing on Its western entrance the Inscription "To the Great Ocean," and oo Its eastern entrance the Inscription "To the Atlantic At-lantic Ocean." After passing the junction of the road to Mukden, the Trans-Siberian drops down to 700 feet then climbs again to 2,100, and thence back to sea level at Vladivostok. From this It will be seen that whether wheth-er viewed from the standpoint of distance, dis-tance, which is one and one-half times that across the American continent by some of the longer routes from seaboard sea-board to seaboard ; whether from that of latitude and climate, which places It at times 700 miles north of tbe main coast of Newfoundland and gives It at some points an average temperature tempera-ture in January of five degrees below sero; whether from that of elevation which gives It three mountain ranges to cross; or whether from that of trackage track-age facilities and rolling stock supply, no other nation has ever had such a railroad problem to deal with In times of great crises as Russia has In con. section with the operation of tbe Trans-Siberian line. In the way of exports. In Its palm-test palm-test days, It bed nothing more Important Impor-tant to give the world than sea-cabbage, trepans ind a fungus gathered from decayed wood, for all of which China was Its principal customer. T re-pang re-pang Is the dried body of the holothu-rlan. holothu-rlan. more commonly known as the sea slug, more appealing to the curiosity than to tbe palate of the Occidental. For this snail-like creature can throw off. when frightened. Its vital organs-digestive, organs-digestive, respiratory and reproductive and replace them all within a few weeks. Nature here seems to hold that two can live more easily. If not more cheaply, than one. When the sea slug becomes too hungry for comfort com-fort It divides In two parts and each, developing rapidly Into complete oults, goes on a search for food. To guard against ' difficulties with China, such as those of recent mouths, Russia prepared two railway strings ( to her transportation bow: the shorter Chinese Eastern line, built by Chinese consent on Chinese soil ; and the longer long-er Amur river branch, entirely on Russian Rus-sian territory. This branch forms a how north of Mnnchuria and meets tbe Chinese Eastern line again before reaching Vladivostok. Across the Amur to the south lies China, or rather Manchuria, which, before be-fore the World war, was being rapidly Russianized. Still, the river there Is truly an International line, and this was proved, if by nothing else, by the extensive smuggling that went on across It The Amur province Is In the same latitude as Newfoundland and has a climate that in some ways Is comparable to the climate of that fur northern American land. |