The Stratford Evening lost WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1910. RUSSIA’S NEW PORT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 71, 20 October 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening lost WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1910. RUSSIA’S NEW PORT.

Some particulars regarding tlio Merman Railway from Petrograd to Russia’s new open port in the north have recently appeared in the Norwegian newspapers, and it appears from them to have been a very considerable undertaking'. The total length is about 910 miles, and it is expected, will be completed and fully open for traffic by December next. Murman Port, the terminus at Kola, lies ten versts to the north of the small town of Kola, and, thanks to the Gulf Stream, it is never closed by ice. So far there have been constructed wooden quays for three large steamers. The inner port is spacious and well protected, and more than forty good-sized boats have been anchored there at the same time. Besides, Kola Bay itself makes an excellent harbour, from 1200 to 3600 yards broad, with a depth of water 70ft. The greatest difference between high and low water is 13ft, with comparatively little current. At low water the depth at the quay is 30ft. The building of the Murman Railway, it is stated by engineering authorities, is a feat second only to that of the Siberian Railway, more especially in view of the rapidity with which the work has been pushed ahead under unfavourable circumstances. The length of the railway is not so excessive, but it passes through districts offering very serious and varied difficulties. To begin with, there were no roads along which men and materials could ho, conveyed to the places where they were wanted. Everything had to he transported over long distances at a heavy cost. In some places the track ran through granite deposits, and in otheifl through heavily-timbered primaeval forests. More difficult than either j were the great distances of boggy i country whirl) bad to be crossed, j Over hundreds of miles the railway had to he built on piles. But wit!) the remarkable patient courage and determination to overcome every oh-, sado which we now know to be amongst the greatest qualities of the Russian of to-day, the great worklias been carried through with surprising speed. This now all-tho-year-roimd open port will he a great mlvantage to Russian commerce ami the future of the Port itself ought to he a bright one.