Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 3, 1888, Part I

No. 148.
Mr. Denby to Mr. Bayard.

Legation of the United States,
Peking, October 11, 1887. (Received November 25.)

No. 480.]

Sir: Referring to my dispatch No. 451, of date September 9, wherein I described the projected Siberian railway, I now have to state that eleven Russian railway engineers have arrived at Hong-Kong.

They will explore and survey the country between Vladivostock and Boussé, a place on the Oussouri River, a distance of 60 or 70 miles.

The Oussouri is a tributary of the Amoor. The ultimate design is to extend the railway first to Lake Baikal and thence to the borders of the Ural Mountains, where it will be connected with the railway system of Russia in Europe.

It is said that contracts have already been made to transport the staff, the rails, and the rolling-stock. This movement will prove of vast advantage to Vladivostock.

I have, etc.,

Charles Denby.