sian Empire, by the stroke of a pen, had moved
ten degrees toward the south. Vladivostok, at the southern extremity
of the new province, was founded in 1860, and in 1872 made chief naval
station on the eastern coast, in place of Nikolaifsk.

But the prize obtained after such expenditure of effort and diplomacy
was far from satisfactory. Of what use was a naval station which was
not only ice-bound half the year but from which, even when ice-free, it
was impossible for ships to reach the open sea except by passing
through narrow gateways controlled by Japan? How to overcome these
obstacles, how to circumvent nature in her persistent effort to
imprison her--this was the problem set for Russian diplomacy to solve.

The eastern slice of Manchuria, which now had become the "Maritime
Province of Siberia," was a pleasant morsel, six hundred miles long.
But there was a still more desired strip lying in the sun south of
it--a peninsula jutting out into the sea, the extreme southern end of
which (Port Arthur) was ideally situated for strategic purposes,
commanding as it does the Gulf of Pechili, the Gulf of Liao-Tung and
the Yellow Sea. Who could tell what might happen? China was in an
unstable condition. Her integrity was threatened. England, France and
Germany, quickly following Russia's lead in the Ussuri strip, had
already wrung privileges from her. Circumstances might any day justify
Russia's occupation of the entire peninsula. She could afford to wait.
And while she waited she was not idle.

The post-road across Asia was no longer adequate for the larger plans
developing in the East; so the construction of a railway was planned to
span the distance between Moscow and Vladivostok. At a point beyond
Lake Baikal the river Amur makes a sudden detour, sweeping far toward
the north before it again descends, thus enclosing a large bit of
Manchuria in a form not unlike the State of Michigan. Many miles of
the projected road might be saved by crossing the diameter of this
semi-circle and moving in a straight line to Vladivostok, across
Chinese territory. It did not seem wise at this time to ask such a
privilege, the patience of China being already strained by the matter
of the Ussuri strip, that much-harassed country being also suspicious
of the railroad itself. So with consummate tact Russia proceeded to
build the road from the two extremities, leaving this gap to be
adjusted by time and circumstances. She had not to