ence Island,
thence to Cape Tchuktchi, and thence by an inland route around the Sea
of Okhotsk to the mouth of the Amoor River. At this point it is to be
joined by the line now being constructed by the Russian Government to
connect with Irkoutsk, where a line of telegraph begins, which stretches
through Tomsk and Omsk, in Western Siberia, Katharinburg, on the
Asiatic-European frontier, Perm, Kasan, Nijni-Novogorod, and Moscow, to
St. Petersburg.

This line, which was projected by Perry McDonough Collins, Esq., United
States Commercial Agent for the Amoor River, with its extension by the
Russian Government to Irkoutsk, is the link now wanted to supply direct
and unbroken telegraphic communication from Cape Race, in Newfoundland,
on the eastern coast of America, across the Western Continent, the
Pacific Ocean, and the Eastern Continent, to Cape Clear, in Ireland, the
westernmost projection of Europe; and when a submarine cable shall be
successfully laid between Cape Clear and Cape Race, will complete a
telegraphic circuit around the earth between the parallels of forty-two
and sixty-five degrees of north latitude.

The chief difficulties to be anticipated in Mr. Collins's enterprise are
the extent of the territory to be traversed, its wild and rugged surface
formation, and the uncivilized character of its inhabitants.

The distance to be traversed through British America is six hundred
miles; through Russian America, nineteen hundred miles; the length of
the submarine cable across Behring's Strait, four hundred miles; and the
distance from East Cape, by an inland passage around the Sea of
Okhotsk, and through the settlements of Okhotsk, Ayan, and Shanter's
Bay, which are well-known stations of the whale-fishery, to the mouth of
the Amoor River, is about twenty-five hundred miles. The entire length
of the line would thus be about five thousand four hundred miles.

That portion of the route which lies through British Columbia is chiefly
mountainous, but divided into three ranges, whose courses are from north
to south, while intervening valleys invite the introduction of
telegraphs and roads. The Pacific coast of Russian America is mainly
level. The portion of Siberia which lies between East Cape and the head
of the Sea of Okhotsk is, for a large extent, a steppe or plain, with
gentle elevations occasionally rising into mountainous ridges. At the
head of the Sea of Okhotsk a range of mountains must be crossed; and the
re