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connection between Europe and the very heart of the
country possible. “In Siberia,” says one of the most able men
of that country, [1] “exist the greatest possibilities for
communication in its wonderful waterways, the like of which
are not to be found anywhere on our globe. Here we have
the gigantic rivers of Ob, Yenisei, and Lena, which are
accessible to ocean-going steamers over distances of more
than 1400 miles from their estuaries. Thus steamers may go
straight from London to the city of Yeniseisk. These
rivers intersect Siberia from the borders of China to the
shores of the Arctic Ocean; into them tributaries larger
than the Volga empty themselves, such as the Aldan, Vilui,
Angarà, Irtish, Podkamennaya- and Nischnaya-Tunguska;
and into these tributaries in their turn flow other large
streams, almost all of them navigable for great distances.”
During the last 26 years, from the first passage over
the Kara Sea to the mouth of the Yenisei, the possibility
of maritime communication between Europe and northern
Siberia has been fully demonstrated. Many of the first
experiments, it is true, failed. Of the 27 ships which
started for the Yenisei during the period between 1877 and
1886, only 12 reached their destination. The other 15 were
either lost in the ice or compelled to return. But it is
evident that most of these failures depended on lack of
knowledge and experience with regard to the peculiar
conditions of the weather and the ice in the Kara Sea. The
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