drove in a droski
from the station to the wharves, a distance of perhaps one mile and a
half, and there went on board the Railway Company's steamer "Amour"
which was to convey us to Shanghai. It is truly wonderful to what a
large European town Dalny has grown from absolutely nothing, in about
five years. Good private residences, factories, hotels, shops, public
buildings, the beginnings of botanical and zoological gardens, a dry
dock measuring, I judged, about 350 feet by 70, wharves, breakwaters,
dredgers, tugs, steamers ... everything except the one thing needful,
trade. Of the half-dozen fine steamers in port, and others either
arriving or preparing to depart, all were practically light. Money has
been poured out like water by the Russians in constructing the Railway
and in building Dalny, and it is very doubtful if this gigantic
enterprise will ever be made to pay. It is said that Dalny, which is
identical with Talienwan, can never thrive unless Newchwang be closed to
foreign trade. The harbour has a depth of 28 feet and is being dredged.
The Railway Company's line of superb steamers carrying mails, passengers
and a little cargo between Dalny and Shanghai, is being run at a heavy
loss. The naval fortress of Port Arthur, at the extremity of the
Liaotung peninsular, is thirty miles by rail from Dalny.

The impression left on me by my journey through Siberia is that Russia
has advanced her outposts into Manchuria far beyond range of effective
communication, that is, communication by the Siberian railway alone,
which is only a single line of light metals some 5,375 miles in length.

Travelling over this line day and night for fourteen consecutive days,
passing continuously through bleak, barren and almost unpopulated
regions, crossing numerous wide rivers, an enormous lake and several
mountain ranges, waiting sometimes for hours in sidings to allow
homeward bound trains to pass, and seeing enough snow, even before
winter had actually begun, to understand what difficulties heavy falls
must occasion, I cannot help feeling that Russia's position in the Far
East is unnatural and even precarious.

The railway in its entirety is flimsy and liable to collapse almost
everywhere, and I am certain it could never sustain a large volume of
rapid traffic. Even, however, supposing that it did not break down, but
was worked successfully to its utmost capacity, what would that capacity
be--the capacity of a single light line of over