CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 October 1915, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

AX ICK-FKIiK KIVSSIAN POKT. A recent cable stated that ten thousand men, mostly prisoners, under American engineers, are constructing a double railway, IiOU miles in length, from Petrograd to Kkaterina, in the Gulf of Kola, which is permanently ice-free and opens a valuable port for war liutlic. Kketarina, or Katharlna, as it. is better known, is situated in Lapland, about 75 miles from the Norwegian frontier, and about :!"0 miles to liie north-west of Archangel, which is now icebound. This new line will parallel the present single track road, which connects Archangel with Vologda, but. will lie more than '211(1 miles to the westward. What is more important is the fact that on the completion of the new road Russia will have an all-year-round open connection with the western seas, and ttiis open communication will be maintained through the very line harbor of Kkaterina, at the head of the Gulf of Kola. Ice is seldom seen except for a short period of February, or early in March, ami then only during winters of unusual severiU. Ki-aterina enjoys the advantage of being near to tile Cull" Stream. That stream on crossing the western ocean passes close to the~~North Cape and back lashes, as it were, to the eastward along the Munnan coast, wiilch latter name is the one given to the Arctic shore of the Province of Kola. The effect of the (iuli 'Stream is felt as far eastward as Ekatcrina. but, no further, and t in consequence, while l.katerina is an open port ail the year round. Archangel. in the White Sea, is closed to navigation early in October, and is seldom open until some time in May. Fkatcrina'lies ten miles from the ocean and from the coui'-e of vessels plying between Archangel and the West. The harbor, which is screened from the ocean by the lofty island of Ekatcrina, is about 1% miles "in length, from 500 to 000 yards ill width, with from 10 to 15 fathoms of water Vessels can anchor right an to the shore line, and not even the 'Heaviest Arctic weather affects the harbor. which is at all times as calm as a millponil. Vessels trading between the east coast of the- United States and Kkaterinn will double the North Cape, and in the summer months in the high latitudes of the North Cape it is daylight the full 21 hour?. After doubling the Xorth Cape navigators will find deep water well up to the shore line, It is expected that with the inauguration of tiie new service communication e.iu he had between Ekuterina and Petrograd in 31 hours' time. Huge compound freight locomotives are being built at Moscow for the Arctic service, to barn either coal or oil, and rolling-stock is also being constructed in America.