The most characteristic physical feature of European Russia is its
_flatness_. In consequence its rivers are almost all navigable, and,
as the most important of them are interconnected by canals, the
facilities for transportation which they afford are very considerable.
Altogether the length of inland navigation thus afforded amounts to
nearly 47,000 miles. This abundance of navigation facilities has
retarded the growth of railways, but there are already 25,756 miles of
finished railway in European Russia alone. The total length of railway
in all Russia built and in building is 34,849 miles. The most
important railway enterprise in the empire is the Trans-Siberian
Railway, which will afford through communication from the Baltic to
the Pacific. The shortest possible distance between these two bodies
of water is 4500 miles. The length of the railway will be 4950 miles,
and its cost, it is supposed, will be $120,000,000. It is to be
completed by 1905.