FOOTNOTES
CHAPTER XII
[97] Thomas Telford, born in Dumfries-shire, Scotland, in humble circumstances, was, next after Brindley, the greatest English canal engineer. He constructed the Caledonian, Ellesmere, Gloucester and Berkeley, Grand Trunk, Birmingham, Macclesfield, Birmingham and Liverpool Junction, and other canals. He also constructed a number of harbours, docks, roads, and bridges, including the Menai Bridge and St. Katherine’s Docks. He died in 1834, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
[98] Cox’s ‘Travels,’ vol. iv.
[CHAPTER XIII.]
THE WATERWAYS OF RUSSIA.
“The servitude of rivers is the noblest and most important victory which man has obtained over the licentiousness of Nature.”—Gibbon.
The Russian Empire is, in many respects, the most remarkable in the world. With an area of more than eight and a half million of square miles, and a population of 110 millions, it is larger than the whole of the British Empire, including India, Canada, and Australia, and is about seventy times the size of the British Islands alone. It is natural that the internal transport of such a vast territory should present problems of deep interest, and should tax the resources of the engineers that have been from time to time occupied with their determination. This has been more than ordinarily difficult because of the vast distances to be traversed, and the inclement character of the climate, which practically seals up navigation entirely over a great part of the Empire for about six months of the year. Happily, the Empire is provided with a very ample river system, having, indeed, longer and deeper rivers than any other country in Europe, which means, of course, that water transport is available over long distances, without making any special or costly provision for that purpose.
The enormous distances over which merchandise has been carried in pre-railway times, throughout the Russian Empire is justly regarded as one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of transportation. For many years previous to the commencement of the present century, large quantities of iron, salt, gold and silver, furs and skins, tallow, leather, marble and precious stones, in addition to the special products of China, were carried from the latter country to St. Petersburg, a distance of fully 2000 miles. The route adopted appears to have been by the Selenga to the Baikal Lake, and thence by the Angara to the Yenisey, where the merchandise was unloaded and carried overland as far as the river Ket. By this stream it was carried to the Obb, and thence up the Irtish and the Tobol, where it was again unloaded, and carried overland to the Tchussovaia, where it was put on vessels, and whence it was carried to the Kama and finally into the Volga. Such a system of transport is probably unequalled for extent and variety in any other part of the world, but the frequent removals and trans-shipments on this and on other principal routes rendered it a matter of urgent importance to connect the different waterways by canal navigation, whereby the leading maritime routes could be joined together.
When we consider the condition of the Russian Empire at the time of Peter the Great, the semi-barbarism of its inhabitants, and the comparatively limited resources at his disposal, the work planned and achieved by Peter the Great[99] in the construction of canals is little short of marvellous. It was he who planned the grand scheme for uniting the Caspian and the Baltic with the Black Sea, by the junction of the Volga and the Don. It was he, also, who began the Ladoga Canal in 1718, although it was not completed until the reign of the Empress Anne. This canal, as constructed, connected the Volkhof with the Neva in a navigation of 67½ miles, with a uniform breadth of 70 feet, and a mean depth of 10 feet in spring and 7 feet in summer. Peter the Great connected Astracan and Petersburg by the canal of Vishni-Volotchok, although the canal was afterwards considerably improved by the Empress Catherine.[100] Peter the Great, who was the founder of Cronstadt, also constructed a canal giving access to the harbour of that place. It was not, however, completed in his lifetime. This canal, called after its founder, is lined with brick, as is also another canal, completed soon after the death of Catherine II., in order that vessels might be able to load and unload stores at the gates of the magazines built on both sides.[101]