The Great Siberian Railway Author(s): P. Kropotkin Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Feb., 1895), pp.

146-154 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1773570 Accessed: 06/07/2010 07:27
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146

THE GPtEATSIBERIAN PtAIL\VAY.

very simpleandsystematic. On the northern slope,the Stourholdsits own; the Medwayhas takenoffthe headof the Darent;the lWole behas headed streamthat usedto gothroughthe Merstham a notchto Groyden; and eitherthe Moleor the Darenthas beheadeda streamthat madethe notchat Catelham Valley; the Wey has recentlytaken oS the headof the Blackwater, nearAldershot. On the southernslope,the C:uckmare, Ouse,Adur,and Arun maintairt open paths to the sea. Inside of the Chalk escarpment, drainageis often by subsequent the side streams? whosedevelopment beendescribedby various has authors. Outsideof the escarpment, there are manysmall streamsthat may be regarded as shorterLed consequents, whosebeheadingwas accomplished early in the denudationof the region. The most peculiarfeatureof the AVeald is that the Stour and the Cuckmare should not have ere rLow been more shortened the inwardgrowth of subsequentstreamsfrom by the coast of the Channelbetween Folkstone and Eastlzourne;as it is, the Rother,in the middle of this district, has llardly accomplished any notable depredations. 17. Now, while any one of these manyexamples ftotn the Tees to theCuckmare, takenalone, might perhapsbe if eLplained someother in manner the one bere suggested,it does not seemto than be witllin the reach reasonable of prob;lbility that so manystreams and rivers should repeat ourer and over again the sialple arariations a single of unless they had been developedin a uniformand systematic theme, manner. lurther, great nunlber subsequentstreams,well the of adjusted the to veaker structures the ret,ion,cannotbe possiblyexplainedas of superposed froma marinecover; they cannot, indeed, reasonably be explained asthe productof a single cycle of subaerial denudation;and if they could therewould then be no explanationfor the " be, uppeir plains" and " tablelands of the Ooliteand the C:halk. thei " Takenaltogeither, it seems that the mostpr()bablei e2zplanation thei one announced thei is at beginning theiessay: that the riversof easternEngland of areinow in the lsaturestage of the second c) cle of subaerialdenudation of a great luass gently dipping sedimentary of rocks,and that they have irl this second cycle e2rtended adjustments streams structures the of to thatwere already begunin the first eycle.

THE GREATSIBERIANRAILWAY.
By P. KROPOTKIN. teIS great line, which

is to aonnectEuropean Russia with the Pacific Ocean, steadilJr is progressing eastwards. It has already reachedthe Irtysh oppositeOmsk,and will soon reach Tomslr, the very in heart of Siberia; while on the otherend of the line, the Usuri river is already connected a railroad by with the shoresof the Pacific. Ofa totallength

THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

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of nearly4700 miles, rails are alreadylaid over 1006miles that is, 68 miles morethan one-fifth part of the whole distance. Therewas at the beginninga great deal of hesitationas to orhether CentralSiberia had to be reachedfiom the north or from the south. The northernline oSers many substantialadvantages. It followsthe great high-road along which the immensecaravans tea fromSiberia, of and of all sorts of goods sent from Russia to Siberia,are now transported; and, after having crossed the Urals in the east of Perm, it enters, on the Siberian slope, the regions of rich ironworks,which can supply the railway with rails, engines, and waggons. Theinit passes through Ekateirinburg, centre of all the mining of the the MiddleUrals, and, turning sharp eastwards,reaches Tyumen,on the Tura. This northern railway, which was completedseveral -ears since,is alreadyof great importance. It connectsthe Kamawith the Siberianrivers of the Ob-and-Irtyshsystem-that is, two immense channelsof inner navigation. The liama, with its large tributaries -Vyatka, Byelaya, Chusovaya and a basin covering no less than 202,600 square miles, waters in its upper parts a most important region containing a greiatnumberof ironvorks, and for the last two centuriesit has been the chief arteryfor communication with Siberia. As to the West Siberianrivers,they undoubtedly will maintaintheir importancefor shipping, even after the Siberian railway i3 completed. Though standing on a ssnall tributary of the Tobo] (the Tura), which itself flows into the Irtysh, the present terminus of that railway, Tyumen, must remain a centre of importancefor all the trafficin heavsrgoods comingfrom Siberia, or shippedfrom the Urals to Siberia. It must be remembered, moreover, that Tyumen stands in easy communication with the Arctic Ocean,and that long before a more or less regular traffichad been establishedbetween Earopeand the Yenisei,a little schooner, built at Tyumenand floated down the Tura, the Tobol, and the Irtysh, went to Londonwith a cargo of Siberian wheat. Now, Tyumen stands in regular steamer eommunication with Tomskand with Biisk, in the Altai, as well as (via the Irtysh) with Omsk and Semipalatinsk, on the borderregion of the GentralAsian steppes. True that the Tllra, on the banks of which Tyumen stands, is a shallow river which often becomesstill more shallow in the summer; but this inconveniencecan easily be remediedby continuing the main line for a short distancealong the Tura, to its junction with the Tobol. In short, even when the Siberian railway will be completed,the northernPerm-TJumen line will remain the chief channel of traffic for a wide, populous, and in parts densely peopled and most fertile region, which owing to its thoroughly Russian population,is consideredas the granaryof West Siberia. Moreover,it bring3 the chief ironworks of the liddle Ulals in direct rail communication with theKama, which L 2

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THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

means,in fact, with the Volga,or with all CentralRussia. Therefore, the main line, Perm-Tyumen, 511 miles long, has been sery wisely providedwith several branches. One of them runs north-westfrom the Chusovayastation to Bereznyaki,also on the liama, but higher up, near Solikamslr (130 miles); and a secondbranch(25 miles) joins the Ostrovskaya station,on the Iset river, with the main line; while this last passes,besidesEkaterinburg, throughsuchimportantcentres of iron industry as Rushva, or liushvinsk, and Nizhne-Taghil,a miningtown of nearly 30,000inhabitants. :EIowever, northern could not satisfy the needof a railway this line to Siberia. Perm is not yet connectedby rail, and will not be connected in a near future,with the railways of GentralRussia,becauee the very thinly inhabitedforest tracts which cover the lower Rama between Perm and Razan belong to the least productisre parts of Russia. Altogether,it is a fact, which cannot be too much insisted upon, that the centre of Russianlife has been moving southwards during tlle last thirtJ, years. It is no more in Moscowand the surtoundinyprovinces, but in the belt of fertile black earthwhich runs south-west north-east, to fromBessarabia the Urals,that the ' density to centre" of the population Russiais now situated. In this belt are of those towns of Russiawhich, apartfrom the capitals,have populsUtions of over 100,000 inhabitants(Kharkoff, RieS, Kishineff, Saratoff,and Samara), becomecentresof industrialand intellectuallife. and It was, therefore, firstimportance connectthe fertile and more of to denselypeopledpartsof South Siberiadirectlywith SouthRussia,and Samarawas readily indicatedas the head of the Trans-Siberian railway. This young city on the Volga has a populationof 100,020 inhabitants, is rapidlydeveloping;and since the Volga has been and spannedby a great iron bridge at Batraki,76 miles to the west of Samara, last standsin railway communication all the railways this with of CentralRussia,its distance from Moscow rail being 611 miles. by FromSamara maillline shoots straight east-north-east the towards Ufa (224 miles), which i# built on the right bank of the Bye]aya,at its junctionwit.hthe Ufa river. Ufa itself has but latel) begunto grow, andhas only 30,000inhabitants;but it is situatedamidsta very fertile region,rapidly peopled by settlers from the middle provinces,and becomesan importantcentre of extensive agriculture. Another 200 luilesin the same directionbring the railway to Zlatoust(20,500 inhabitants), rival of El3aterinoburg, the centreof the great iron the and andgold mining district of the SouthernUrals. The mountainsare crossedhere in a depression betsveen the mountains Taganai and Ursuga; the impoltantiron^rorks Miyasare passedby, and Chelyaof binsk,522 miles fromSamara, reached. Up to this litl;lespot,which is hadin 1891 only 11,200 inhabitants, railwayis quite ready,and the thereis regular passengerand goodstraffic. It must alsobe said that

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the line is ir from being idle, considerable amountsof corn and all sorts of produceof cattle-breeding being already exportedwestwards fromthe Kirghizsteppes. Chelyabinskstands on the borderof the prairies of South-West Siberia, a low watershed only separatingthem from the prairiesof the upper Ishim, which belong to the outer borderlands {:entral of Asia. At {:helyabinsk begins the first sectionof the Siberianrailway proper, which strikes due east, along the SSth degree of latitude towardsOmsk. This section,491 miles long, which crossesthe Ishim and the Tobolrierers, lately beencompleted, that the railroad has so now reachesthe Irtysh, oppositeOmsk. According the reportlaid before to the railwaycomlnittee Decemberlast, the line is completedon the in whole distance, with the exceptionof threebig bridgeswhich are being built. One-half all the buildingswhich have to be erectedalont,the of line are ready,and among them the arrangements supplying the for line with water are 1lot the least important. All waggens and onethird part of the-necessaryengines are alreadyon the line, and thirdclass traEc has been opened although gOodsand passengers have still to be transferredfor crossing the three rivers, not yet spannedby bridges. The nest sectionis from Omslzto Tomsk,a distance of 3a0 miles. Apartfrom colossalbridgeswhichhaveto be built overthe Irtyshat two Oteskand the Ob,and a smallerone acrossthe Tom,there will be no technicaldifEculties buildingthat section. It crossesthe level and in fertileBarabasteppe,dottedwith relativelywealthyvillages of Bussian peasants. Therewill also be no difEcultfr obtaining in waterfromwells or from lakes-the main difficultiesbeing only to be foreseenin the future,as the wholeof this region, as shown by the well-knownmaps of the late N. Yadrintseff, desiccateswith a rapidity which upsets all the former calculations geologists. But the building of the bridges of over the Irtysh andthe Ob,which both carryimmense quantitiesof ice in the autume and the spring, and inundatetheir low shores in the summer,will undoubtedly representa difficultand costly engineering feat. Even the comparatively much smaller Tom is by no meansan easily manageable river,especiallywhen it is covered;n the autllrun nvitha thick layer of rapidlymovingice. At the presenttime (December?1894) three-fourths all the earthworks of whichhave to be donein this sectionare alreadyaccomplished, the rails have been laid over atLd the first 70 miles. Tomsk,the capital of We.stSiberia?is a great centre of SiberiamI life. Its populationhas lately doubled and attains now 42,000. It has now a university? is the centrefor all the tradewith the rich and Altai mines and at,ricultural settlements, while the populatiotl the of surroundingregion increasesevery year by scores of thousandsof immigrantsfrom EuropeanRctIssia.Since the last fimine in Russia,

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THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

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the nunlberof inlmigrantsto Siberia has rapidly grown to 100,000 every year, so that the imnzigration had to be organizedon a larger scale for alleviating the suSerings of the masses of peasant.s, who formerly rushedto Siberiawithoutknowingwherethey wouldfind free land to settle upon,or how they couldreachit. Most of them settle in the government Tomsk. As to the citJr Tomsk,ite recentrapid of of growthis chiefly(lueto its having been broughtinto regularsteamer communication with Tynmen,which, as alreadymentioned, stands in rail communication with tlle Rama at Perm. It may, therefore,be safelyconcluded that from the day Tomskis broughtin uninterrupted railway coznmunication with Russia, the town will grow still more rapidly,asalsothepoptllation of the surrounding plains and therich valleysof the Altai- a regionmuchlike Ssz itzerland physicalfeatures, in but threetimes as large. The next section,betweenTomskandKrasnoyarsk, rather or between the Oband the Yenisei,enters Eclst Siberia. In the west of the Tomsk the railway crossesthe lowlycnds, that is prairies,rising only by 200 and 300 feet above the sea; but further eastwardsit will have to crossthe first terraceof the high plains of East Siberia,which lie oser 1000 feet abovethe sea-level,and are an 1lndulated plateau,intersected heraand there by low ranges of hills tha outspursof the mountains lying further southwards. On this sectioll, 38 per cent. of all the earthvvorks which had to be madefor the railwaywere accomplished in December,1894, and it was expectedthat by January 1, 189a, the rails wouldbe laid o-er a distanceof 200 miles. The third section, betweenKrasnoyarsk I1kutsk,will oSermore and difEcultie#. First of all, the railwaywill have to cross the broael and rapidYenisei,which flows at a level of 410 feet only at Rrasnoyarsk, and immediately after that it will have to rise again to a level of over 1000feet that is, to the level of the high undulatingplainswhich fringe the great plateau of East Asia. The spurs of the Sayan Highlands reachhere to 2029 feet, while the rivers are deeply cut into the high plains. Of course,such conditionsoSer nothing which would much diCerfromthe usual conditionsof railvvay building in MiddleRussia itself, but in East Siberia the laying downof the rails certainlywill not progresswith the same rapidity as it has hitherto progressed in West Siberia,while the cost of the constructionwill be considerably increased. Detailedreearches ouly have beenmadeup till now in this section. But it is well worth mentioningtbat, at tbe sametime, engineeringworkshanebeen accomplished the Angara,in orderto clear on its bed fromthe rockyrapidswhich hitherto stoodin the way of navigationon this beautifulriver. The Angaraconnects, is well known, as Lake Baikal with the Yenisei, and now, after the persevering efforts of Captain Wiggins,a rater communication betweenIrkutsk and the Yeniseimeansa watercommunication WestEurope. The ra.pids with of

152

THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

the AngarabelowIrkutskare not very dangerous, smallerboatshaving always navigatedin this partof the great East Siberianriver,and a little clearingof the bed will, and partly has, set things right; but the rapidsbetween Irkutskand Lake Baikil will be much more difficult to clear; however,duringthe last summersome progresswas madein this part of the river as well, and the day is not far distant when Irkutsk may becomethe port of Ijake Baikal, although this seemed quite hopelessthirty years ago. At the presenttime, only researches being madefor the further are continuation the Siberianrailway,and the last reports are that an of easy passagehas been foundacrossthe eastern border-ridge the high of terraceof the plateau the Stanovoior Yablonovoi Mountains. This is what may have been expected. As to the westernborder-range the of sameplateau,it will offerno difficulties whatever, it is piercedby the as broatlvalley of the Selengaand the Uda, whih appearsas an immense railwaytrench,rising with a gentle gradient from Lake Baikal (1500 feet) to the Stanovoiwater-parting, 4000 feet abovethe sea. The most difficultpartof the railwaybetween Irkutsk and Ghita(at the eastern foot of the Stanovoiwater-parting)is whereit has to followthe south coast of the Baikal,for which purposea way must be cut throughthe aocky crags rising-abruptly fromthe waters of the lake. But here, also, the most difficultpart of the work was done in 1865-1866 by the Polish exiles,who built the present high-roadalong the southern shoreof the lake, breakingthe rocks in Siberianfashion,with the aid of water pouredon the rocks after they had been heated bg big fires, and allowedto freezein the crevices. The real engineeringdifficultieswill begin only when the railway is built between Chita and the Amur, where it will have to crossa selies of parallelranges,throughwhich the lower Shilkahas piercedits rocky channel. But a few years will pass beforework is started in this part of the GrandRailwaytrunk. In the mean time, the railway progresses its other end, on the at shoresof the Pacific. A telegramreceivedat St. Petersburg the end at of Decemberlast announcedthat the rails had been laid from A7ladivostok to within one mile from the village Grafskaya, the Usurion that is, on a distanceof 250 miles. Teeinically speaking,this section oXered difficulties, no apartfromsomemarshyplaceswhichthe line had to cross. Thedifliculties wereratherin tlle absenceof population. But to this difficulty, which also will be met with further downthe banks of the Usuri, a new one will be added. llhe fact is, that the Usuri,like -thelower Sungari,andthe banksof the Amurbetweenthe Little Khingan (Dousse-alin)and the moutllof the Usuri,belongto what Peschel describedas 4'youngriver valleys." The whole of the middleIJsuri region w-as quite recently(in the later Post-Pliocene times)an immense lake,which only lately beganto desiccate. The IJ8uri andits countless

THEGREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY.

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smallertributaries have not yet dug out permanent bedsacrossthis flat and low countriy, everyyear,in July andAugust,whenthe torrential and rainsbroughtby the monsoons begin, the whole is transformed a into labyrinth of ponds, marshes,and lakes. This is why the population, which had beensettledalong the banksof the Usuri at regularintervals of about 18 miles, could-cultivate low ridges ouly which intersect tlse this periodically inundated land, and,afterhaving vainly struggled for years againstnature,permission given (upona reportof the present was writer) to leave those villages, and to settle elsewhere, the Pacific on coast. The RailwayCommitteehaving now decidedagain to repeople this part of the lJsuri region by settlers flore Transbaikalia, there is great dangerof their meetingwith the same fa,ilures before,unless, as of course,a betterexploration the wholedistrictleadsto the discovery of of spots better sllited for a permanentpopulation. At any rate, the railmray engineers will have to contendwith gleat technicaldifficulties in crossingthe lowlandsof the MiddleUsuri,$andperhaps they will be compelled seek for a more advantageous to directionof the railway,at the foot of the mountains someway offthe banksof the Usuri it6elf. It must be ownedthat for some time to comethe railwayalongthe Amur and the Usuri will probably remaina mere strategic line. Of all the;immenseterritory x-hich goes under the name of tlle Amur Eet,ion, ouly the;space; between the;Zeiyaand the Bureya rivers, in the;east of Blagovyeschensk, offersa really rich territoryfor human settlements,owing to its fertile soil and elevation above the level of the rivers. The; remainder,in the north-west of Rumara, is but a valley cut through the high plateau, surrounded e:tremely by cold and wild highlands; and in the east of the Little Khinganthere are but the moreelevatedflat lidges which are suitablefor settlements, while all that surrounds them belongs to the just-mentioned type of periodically inundated marshylow plains. Quite difEerent the railwayacrossWest Siberiaand the governis tnents of Irkutsk and West Transbaikalia. lKillions and millons of humanbeings may find in the3e regions all that is wanted for a rich development agriculture all sortsof industries. of and A few words need,perhaps, addedas to the remarkably cost be low oftravelling to Siberia. Under the presenttariff,the distanceof 2180 Englishmiles fromGranica, the Austrianfrontier,to Gthelyabinskon sia Warsaw, Brest-Litovsk, Vyazona(150 milesbeforereachingMoscow wherethe line starts to Salnara) and Samara-is covered less than for tS (47 roubles)in the third class, and for t9 2s. (91 roubles)in the
* It i3 worthnoticing that ^hen tlle writerwent up the Sungari in 1864 he rnet on the lower Sungari,with a region of exactly the same character, which the Chinese had abandoned quite hopelessforcolonization accountof its low-lyingcharacter as on and inundations.

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DR. Sl EN HEDIN"STRAl ELS IN CENTRAL ASIA.

secondclass. Another poundwouldpaya third-class ticketto the station on the Irtysh opposite Omsk. But even these low fees will be reduced underthe new zone-tariwhich going to be intloduced. is DR. SVEN HEDIN'STRAVELS CENTRAL IN ASIA. [WEhave receivedthe followingcommunication fromDr. Sven Hedin, datedfromKashgar,November 1894: ] 9, I havejust returned fromMustagh-ata, . . and send you a short . accountof the workdoneduringthe past summer. On June 21,1894, I left liashgar and proceeded way of Yangi-Hissar Ighiz-yarto by and the valley of Gedyek,and thence to that of Kinkol. Having crossed the passes of Ghichikli,liichik, Khatta, and Kolrmamak, reached I Tagharma, advanced Ulugh-rabat Su-bashi and by to (July 8). At the latter place there is a C:hinese f(rtress,situated at the westernbase of )Iustagh-ata. Along the whole route T made a topographical map, collected specimensof rocks,and made geologicalobservations which will complete those of Bogdanovich. I regularlymademeteorological observations thrice daily with three aneroidsand a boiling-point thermometer,and on every opportunity took photographs studied the and modeof life of the Kirghiz. From July 12 to 2o my campwas situatedat Little Kara-Kuland at Bassik-Kul. The whole of this neighbourhood surveyedwith wa# great care, in orderto serve as my base of operationsfor the whole country. (;eological, eslimatological, otherinvestigation# ere conand M tinued,and numerou# excursion# made in all directions. Little EaraKul is an obstruction lake danlmed the moraines a glacierwhich by of has long #ince retreated,and i# now representedby everal #mall glacier#in the upperslopesof the Mustagh-ata. The moraine# this of old glacier,however,still remain, have bloclred valley of Sarikand the Kol in such a mray that the water i#Uillg from the glacier#further southaccumnlates form# Lake. Hence Little Kara-Kuli# also a and a settling ba#infor the river; the glacierwaterenteringat the south end carriesin large quantitiesof glacialmud, while the little streamthat issuesfrom the nortbernend ;s quite limpid. The alluvitlmaccumulated at the upper end, whereit formsan abruptslope to the deepest Fortion of the lake. Availing myself of a boat nnade skins, I of measured depthsat 103 differentplaces. The ma2ritnum the depthof 78 feet is found in the southern half; the centre in general varies i depthfrom50 to 65 feet. The water is clear,fresh,and excellent to drink. Several springs enter the lake at the foot of the crystalline rocks which rise on the ea#ternand westere shore#. The streamof Kara-Kulfalls into the lke-bel-su,a river of considerable dllring size summer, almost dried up in winter. It formsthe 1lppercour#e but of the Gez-daria.