RUSSIA'S WINTER PORT.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLIII, Issue 88, 15 May 1917, Page 8

RUSSIA'S WINTER PORT.

FREE FROM ICE, WABJfBD BY UL'LF STREAM. It has been officially announced from Russia that the much-talked-of Murmun Railway is now open for traffic. This is an event of great importance for the future conduct of the war, for by this railway Russia has obtained an outlet to an ice-free port through which she can obtain material from the west through the winter, according to a writer in the Manchester 'Guardian.'

The railway is called after the Murinan coast of the Kola Peninsula, which shuts in the White Sea on the north and is washed by the Arctic Ocean. It may seem strange that a port on the Arctic Ocean, situated some 250 miles north of Archangel, which is frozen up for six months in the year, should free from ice all the year around. The explanation is that this coast is washed by the Gulf Stream, which, after doubling the North Cape, is in these parts still powerful enough to prevent ice from accumulating along the shore. This, of course, applies only to tlio open coast, for at Kola, whicli lies deeper down Katharine Bay, the water frequently freezes. Novo Alexandrovsk, which lies just at the mouth of the bay, is as free from ice as any Norwegian port of the same latitude. It was thoreforo Novo Alexandrovsk which was chosen as the terminus for the Murman Railway, though tho actual port, \*ith its quays, waredocks, etc.. will be situated on the other side of the bay, at Romanoff, where there is more available space for building. It was worth noting that the idea of a railwav to terminate at Novo Alexandrovsk was first conceived by the late Count Witte as far back as the middle of the 90's with the object of constructing an ice-free naval fortress. The idea, however, was ultimately discarded in favor of a fortress at Libau, and was only revived at the end of 1914, when tho necessity of an alternative to the Archangel routo for war purposes became obvious. Since then thousands of workmen from Russia and prisoners of war —sometimes as many as 20,000—had been engaged in tfte arduous task of constructing a port and a railway in an inhospitable, roadless and scantily inhabited country, with a rough climate, over ground sometimes marshy, sometimes mountainous, which necessitated in some places strengthening by means of wooden piles and in other places extensive trenching and blasting. This labor has been crowned with success, the whole line, about 680 miles in length, being now available for the transport of war material from Novo Alexandrovsk to Petrqgrad. Tho line may be divided into five parts. The first, from Petrograd to Zvanka, is a section of an old line from the capital to Vologda, which is itself connected with Archangel. The eecond section, from Zvanka to Petrozavodsk, on the Onega Lake, was constructed by a private company at tho beginning of 1915. The third section, from Petrozavodsk to Soroka, in the southwestern corner of tho White Sea, and on to Kem, on the western coast of the same sea—one of the most beautiful spots in that country—was constructed in the spring and the summer of the present year. The fifth section, across tho Kola Peninsula, from Kandalaksha, at the northwestern corner of the White Sea, to Novo Alexandrovsk, was roady at the end of last year, permitting of motor sledge connection with the Finnish railways. The fourth section, between Kandalaksha and Kem, was the last to bo completed. This section was the most difficult of all owing to the. abundance of lakes and the marshy ground, and its quick construction is due to the fact that the Russian Government had wisely renounced the idea of exceeding the limits of military requirements for the present, and deferred a more solid construction till better days come. The line wil now make it possible to transport goods from the Murman coast to Petrograd in two days all the year round. It was due to'M. Trepoff to acknowledge that it was his energy and iron will whilo ho was Minister of Railways, which have brought about such a rapid completion of the important undertaking.

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