Page:Morgan Philips Price - Siberia (1912).djvu/309

(4) The All-Sea Yenisei Route: its Possibilities and its Difficulties.—There is yet another project which aims at opening up communication between the outside world and Siberia, and is well deserving attention at this time. It is generally admitted that the establishment of the so-called "All-Sea Yenisei Route" would have great effect in stimulating the commerce between Central Siberia and Western Europe by the Arctic Sea. The possibility of navigating the estuary was proved by Captain Wiggin some years ago and by Captain Webster in 1911. The latter succeeded in bringing a ship with a general cargo round the Kara Sea to Krasnoyarsk on the Yenisei, landing there in the summer of 1911. The obstacles in the way of the establishment of this route are, of course, the ice difficulties in the Kara Sea, which greatly increase the risks of navigation, and the shortness of the open water season in the estuary of the Yenisei. This estuary is generally open for about two and a half to three months in the summer, but the Kara Sea, through which a ship must pass on its way from the north-east coast to European Russia, is only free from ice floes for a few weeks. A ship, therefore, which would have to unload and reload at Krasnoyarsk in the centre of Siberia, although it may be able on its return successfully to navigate the Yenisei estuary, may be too late to cross the Kara Sea before the winter ice sets in. To remedy this, Captain Webster has proposed to establish a port of transhipment at Novo Zemlya, just outside the so-called Iron Gates of the Kara Sea, where incoming ships from Europe can discharge, pick up freights and depart again without delay, leaving the farther journey of the Yenisei