er the Island of Jesso, through
Hakodadi, and across the Straits of Sangar, to Jeddo, the capital of
Japan.

A line from the confluence of the Usuri with the Amoor, seven hundred
miles above the mouth of the latter, thence southward, on the bank of
the Usuri, to Lake Kingka, and thence to the port of Vladi Vastok, on
the coast of Tartary, opposite the port of Hakodadi, on the eastern
coast of the Japanese Sea. Vladi Vastok is selected by the Emperor for
his naval station on the Pacific coast.

A line from Irkoutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, through Kiakhta,
now the entrepot of European and Chinese overland commerce, through the
vast territory of the Mongols, to the gate in the Chinese wall at Yahol,
and thence to Pekin, the capital of the Chinese Empire.[E]

A line from a station on the main continental line at Omsk, near the
southern boundary of Asiatic Russia, passing through Mongolia, and
entering China at Hirck, sometimes called Illy, thence crossing
Turkistan, Bokhara, and Balk, to Cabool, in Afghanistan, thence to
capital places in the Punjaub, where it will meet the telegraphic system
of India, and thus become a medium of communication between London and
the colonial dependencies of Great Britain, Holland, Spain, and
Portugal, on the shores and islands of the great Indian Ocean.

A line from Kasan, on the main central Russian line, through Georgia and
Circassia, along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, to Teheran, the
capital of Persia, thence to the Tigris, at Bagdad, thence descending
along the banks of that river to the head of the Persian Gulf, there to
be connected with the Oriental telegraph system of India.

The line from Irkoutsk to Pekin American citizens residing in China are
now soliciting, with good prospect of success, permission from the
Chinese Government to extend through the Empire, with the needful
branches, connecting the principal ports along the Pacific coast,
opposite California. A company to carry out this project has been
organized under the laws of the State of New York. The wires of this
company are first to be put up from Canton to Macao and Hong Kong, a
distance of 140 miles,--Canton having a population of 1,000,000,
Hong-Kong of 40,000, and the trade of both cities world-famous. Lying
245 miles north is Amoy, with 250,000 inhabitants; and 120 miles farther
in the same direction is Foochow, a city with a population of 600,000,
and within 70 miles of the black-tea district