The Russo-Indian Railway.

Evening Star, Issue 6895, 6 May 1886, Page 3

The Russo-Indian Railway.

After much consideration, the terminus on the Caspian of the railway which is intended ultimately to join the Indian railway system at Herat has been settled ; and the ceremony of laying the first stone of the new harbor at Michailovsk has taken place. In September last it was stated that General Annenkoff who is the military director of the Russian railway system, had selected the spot for this new harbor on an island called Klatch. How far distant this is from Michailovsk was not stated, but a branch railway was to be made to the new port. At first it was intended that Khaasnovodsk should be the terminus, as there is deep water in the bay of that place, close up to the shore; but this would have required the construction of a line of railway at least eighty miles long to connect it with the Michailovsk line. Another plan which had been under consideration was that of making a canal forty miles long from Michailovsk, through the bed of the sea in order that vessels might sail up to that port. The necessity of digging a channel such a distance will show the peculiar character of the shores of the Caspian, which is their great shallowness, and which has formed the great difficulty of the Russians in selecting ports. When the expedition to Geok Tep6 was first started, Chi kishliar was the landing-place, but, owing to the distance, the transports had to remain from the shore, it had

to be abandoned, and Michailovsk took its place. The steamers from Baku and Astrakan brought troops and stores to Krasnovodsk, and from that they had all to be towed in barges drawing but little water to Michaiovsk. This was a troublesome process, and the short voyage took about as long as the crossing by the steamer from Baku. This arrangement was looked upon as only of a temporary kind ; for in case of war the loss of time would have been serious ; and when the ultimate scheme may at last be carried out of making this line the overland railway to India such a delay would have been out of the question. Michailovsk, or some point near it—the name “ Michoilovsk,” being a Russian one, will no doubt be retained for the new site—may be considered now as the terminus of this important new railway, which has such a historic future before it. The Armenians, Jews, and small traders, who are most of them as yet little above the rank of “ sutlers.” are already leaving Krasnovodsk to find sites for their places of business in this infant of a city, for a city it will be some day. Political motives may delay, but they cannot stop for all time the joining of this railway with the Indian lines. Already, in addition to this, branch lines are talked about to Merv, Bokhara, Khiva, Samarkand, and all the

principal places in Central Asia, which will most probably be constructed in a few years. Central Asia was formerly a rich country, and it only requires a strong Government which can stop raiding, brigandage, as well as wars among its savage khans, to become again fertile and populous. This condition has at length appeared, and the prosperity of the past is certain to come again: and as it comes so w ill Michaiiovsk grow in commercial importance. It will be some day in the future the great emporium of the trade of Central Asia, as well as of the countries round that region. Commerce often in our own days strikes out new lines, but it occasionally goes back to tracks which have been unused for centuries; it returns at times where it is all but forgotten that trade had ever been before associated with the spot. Michaiiovsk stands on a sandy sea shore, with only a very small and scattered population near it; but it is now known that the Oxus at one time flowed, not into the Sea of Aral, but into the Caspian, and its old bed has been traced from near Khiva, through

the desert, to the Bay of Krasnovodsk, passing over the very ground on which Michaiiovsk is to grow and increase. Some 2,000 years ago the merchandise, not only of Central Asia, but of India and China, floated down the Oxus, and passed over to Baku, from which it was transported through the ancient Colchis to the Euxine, and thus reached the countries of the West. The present generation will see the beginning of a return to this very ancient trade route, which is probably as old as the time of Jason and Medea, but it will take some generations to see its final results, as well as its political bearings, which are far too important to be alluded to here at this moment.