them being forty miles, considerably more than the breadth of the lake in that neighbourhood. At both sides very considerable harbour works are in course of construction, and on the western side the icebreaker is being built.

This ice-breaker was ordered from W. G. Armstrong and Co., now Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., in the beginning of the year 1896. The firm were told that it was wanted in a hurry, and they used such speed that the hull was finished, erected in their yard, taken down and shipped by steamer to St. Petersburg by June of the same year. That was justly considered to be a very creditable piece of work, inasmuch as such a vessel on such a big scale was a novel enterprise. The method of transport to Lake Baikal was by steamer to St. Petersburg, thence by rail so far as the railway was then opened, and thence by sledges. They told me at Lake Baikal that, although the vessel had been fully erected at Newcastle-frames, beams, and stringers being all fastened by temporary bolts, and the vessel then fully plated, and everything after being taken down duly marked and numbered—yet between St. Petersburg and Lake Baikal several portions were lost. The design of the vessel is based upon the fact that the ice to be broken will be several feet in thickness. The bow and the stern are of the strongest steel castings, the intention being to inflict upon the ice a very

heavy blow, whether from the bow or the stern. Naturally, to resist the shock, the boat had to be built all through of very strong and heavy material. The material used was Siemens-Martin steel, and the hull was subdivided into water-tight compartments with a double bottom, and special strengthening at the bulkheads. The vessel is 290 feet long, by 57 feet in breadth, drawing 18 feet of water, with a displacement of 4,200 tons, and 3,750 horsepower. The cars are run on to the main deck of the steamer over a railed gangway, and will be securely kept in position by strong supports. The passenger accommodation, which will be very good, is on the upper deck. The engine-power is devised to drive two propellers at the stern and one propeller at the bow, the special use of the latter being to disturb the water while the stem of the vessel is breaking the ice. Notwithstanding the great forethought and care that were used in England the work of construction at Lake Baikal proceeds very slowly. The ice-breaker was shipped from England in June, 1896, and when I was at Lake Baikal in September, 1898, the erection of the vessel there was not nearly finished. Optimistic persons said it would be ready for use in the winter of 1899, and pessimistic persons suggested the winter of 1900.

Meanwhile, the administration of the railway have awakened to the fact that it is unreasonable to expose so great, so costly, and so important a road

to the delays and risks that will be inseparable from ferry traffic across an ice-bound sea, to be conducted by one steamer, and that steamer in itself a mere experiment. So the route round the head of the lake is being surveyed, and the work of construction will be begun next spring. It will be pushed on as quickly as is possible, but, since it is full of engineering difficulties, and since the use of the Trans-Baikal section of the road is urgently desired, the harbour works and the ice-breaker will be carried on simultaneously. The theory, in a word, is that no risk of a block must be allowed, and that the railway authorities shall, as soon as possible, be able either to send trains round the head of the lake or to ferry them across its surface.

I struck the railway works, as I have said, at Masova, on the eastern side of Lake Baikal-TransBaikal as the Russians call everything east of the lake. From there the line has already been graded so far as Stretyinsk, about 800 miles east of Baikal, where one meets the steamer on the river Amur. But since that was arranged a great change has come in the whole plan of the Trans-Baikal section of the line. The earliest objective of the line is no longer Vladivostock-it is Port Arthur. As a consequence the original plan-nay, even the second plan-of the line has been reconsidered. It is being proposed to vary a section of the amended scheme in favour of a more direct route to Port

Arthur. That more direct Port Arthur route is now being surveyed, and substantially it is proposed that the place of divergence from the original and from the still later route shall be at or near Chitai, a point some 500 miles east of Lake Baikal, and some considerable distance short of Stretyinsk, to which latter place, as I have said, the line is already graded. Speaking broadly, this means something more than a saving in distance; it means--I quote the talk of Siberian railway engineers-that for all practical purposes of railway administration and shipping facilities the real terminus of the Russian railway system shall be in the Gulf of Pe-chi-li. To To put it plainly, the great railway to Vladivostock will cease to be a main line to Vladivostock: it will become a railway to the China Sea, with a branch to Vladivostock.

Although the rails are laid to Listvenitchaia, on the western shore of Lake Baikal, the railway is not yet open to there for general traffic, nor will it be open till next year. The line is open to Irkutsk, a town about forty miles west of the lake, and charmingly situated on the Angara River, which flows from the lake towards the northern seas. But, unhappily for Irkutsk, the town is, for railway purposes, on the wrong bank of the river. The railway making for Lake Baikal comes from the west, and finds the town of Irkutsk on the eastern bank of the Angara. If it were a com

mercial railway it would no doubt be taken across the river and into Irkutsk, which is a fine city, the capital of Eastern Siberia, and the centre of all the trade with China, with Further Siberia, and with Europe. But the railway is a strategical line, seeking the easiest route to Lake Baikal, and the easiest route is to run along the river's western bank towards the lake. Therefore, when I say that the line is open to Irkutsk, I qualify that by adding that it is open to a point about five miles from the town. You reach that point from Irkutsk by traversing a bridge and a ferry so densely crowded with traffic that I was told to allow myself four hours to cover five miles, and I actually did take nearly two hours, although the Chief of Police had very kindly given me the escort of an officer, who gave my carriage precedence of all competing traffic. That state of matters, however, will not continue very long. The railway will not come into Irkutsk, but it will come nearer to the town, and a proper bridge and roadway will be made.

It was on the afternoon of September 28 that I left Irkutsk by rail, with snow on the ground and with the thermometer at freezing-point. My destination was Moscow, and the time I had estimated for the journey was twelve days. The actual time, as it turned out, was three hours less than my estimate-285 hours of continuous travel, unbroken save by two ferries, and at each ferry