In the It is now tolerably certain the fighting fleet. that Rojdestvensky remained meantime Admiral Togo kept off the coast of Annam until his whole fleet in the secure May 12. This date would harbours of his home waters. have given Nebogatoff just It was no secret that the bulk time to coal and make any of the Japanese naval strength necessary repairs after after his was lying in the Korean Straits, voyage across the Indian as we find the fact reported Ocean. Whatever may have two or three times from differbeen Admiral Rojdestvensky's ent sources between April 12 faults as а sailor, it must and May 24. We have not be allowed that, after he sailed the slightest doubt that the from the coast of Annam, he Russian information was good successfully lost his fleet as far enough to inform Rojdestas European information was vensky of this fact. A single concerned. A general impres- glance at the map, and a small sion prevailed in this country amount of labour spent in that he would steer the Pacific making measurements with a course and avoid the narrow pair of dividers, will apprise seas of Southern Japan: all even the most unlearned that, experts agreed that the For- provided there was no fear of mosa Channel would not be the Russians being able to attempted. And the only in- establish any temporary or formation of a reliable nature flying base in the vicinity of that reached the coastline Oyama's sea communications, towns of China between May Togo could not have done 12, when a fleet was reported better than to have awaited to be at sea off the Three the course of events in the Kings, and May 20, when harbours in the Korean Straits. fifty ships were sighted by the With the means of observation S.S. Oscar II. off Batan Island and information at his comin the Bashee Channel, was to mand, he was master of the the effect that forty-three situation whichever route the colliers had been counted at Russian admiral might select anchor off Nahbe, and that a in an attempt to reach Vladiportion of Rojdestvensky's fleet vostok. And even in reachhad coaled in a bay on the ing Vladivostok, supposing coast of Hainan. The news that thick weather had caused brought by the S.S. Oscar II. the Japanese observation to was doubtless correct, but it is fail, the hopes for the Russian quite likely that the vessels success were not materially coaling off Hainan were a heightened. portion of the auxiliary cruiser squadron, which squadron, there is no doubt, the Russian admiral hoped might serve to some extent as a decoy, when for military reasons it became necessary to detach it from The general belief still obtained that the Russians were heading for La Perouse, when on May 26 Europe was electrified by the information that a Russian squadron had appeared off Wusung. The units thus reported proved, however, to be our friends the converted cruisers. But a liner which was making the passage from Nagasaki to Shanghai reported having passed two Russian second-class cruisers. This information was all that was vouchsafed on Saturday night the 27th of May. Every one interested in this titanic struggle went to bed on that Saturday night convinced that the next twenty-four hours would produce information of a naval shock unparalleled in the history of the seas. Nor had they miscalculated, but there were very very few who could have judged of the terrific nature of the issues which were settled in Japanese waters, or could have imagined that by Monday morning the proud fleet which had sailed in October from the Baltic, flaunting all and sundry that came in its way, should have suffered complete annihilation. It was a sequel the like of which not even the most sanguine had anticipated. As we pointed out last month, we had no reason to fear for the final success of the Japanese on sea, but even we never anticipated that Admiral Togo would be able to bring his fighting fleet back to its anchorages in Japan practically complete in all its units. regard to this epoch-marking battle up to the present has not been sufficiently elucidative to eradicate a certain amount of presumption from any description that we may attempt of the great battle. But there seems to be an impression amongst certain interviewed Japanese naval officers that the Russian armada changed its course after sighting the Liau-kiau group, with the express object of deluding Togo into the belief that the passage northward was a mere feint. We doubt if this be true. But we rather lean to the view that once Rojdestvensky had made Quelpart, he found that the coast of Korea was shrouded in fog. Quelpart having given him his bearing, he determined to force the Korean Straits, Togo or no Togo, fog or no fog, sea or no sea. From the standpoint of pure heroics it was doubtless a fine resolve, but in the interests of the 15,000 souls on board his fleet, and in the matter of the sacred necessity to his country, it is hardly the manoeuvres that we would have suggested. no suggested. Rojdestvensky no doubt regulated his course so as to make the peak on Quelpart Island by daybreak on the 27th, or he may have cruised in the vicinity since the afternoon of the 26th. As Quelpart on the map is about one hundred and twenty miles west of Tsushima, twelve hours at ten knots would have brought Rojdestvensky into action just about the hour hour given in Togo's official report. Once the Russian admiral had determined to force the Straits, there were three passages open The actual course that the Russians steered after they left the coast of Batan is not quite certain, but it is probable that once the fleet was clear of Formosa it headed for Quelpart. The information which has reached this country with to him. Korea is separated from Japan by barely one hundred miles of water. Two groups of islands help to bridge this narrow channel. These groups are Tsushima to the north and Ikishima to the south. Consequently there were three channels in these Korean Straits which were open to Rojdestvensky: Broughton Channel north of Tsushima, Oriental Channel separating Tsushima from Ikishima, and the ordinary trade channel between Ikishima and the mainland, which latter, in the circumstances, was naturally out of the question. A glance at the coastline which encloses these channels is sufficient to demonstrate the terrible risks which were undertaken by the Russian fleet in its paucity in cruisers and torpedo craft. Both coastlines furnish innumerable anchorages, and the passage being controlled by the observation posts on the two central groups of islands, it would be impossible to imagine a more effective sea area for torpedo tactics. Apparently in the morning the mists were heavy enough to conceal Togo's fleet. Two divisions of this fleet were lying in the vicinity of the Broughton Channel, in two of the many anchorages in the Masampo Archipelago. It is possible to picture in the mind's eye the impressive spectacle of the great Russian armada heading directly for Japan's territorial waters on that beautiful but fateful morning. All accounts agree that the weather was fine, though a strong breeze from the south east had raised a heavy sea. The warmer winds from the south caused the usual spring mists to envelop the horizon to the northwest, indicating the coast-line of Korea and all the dangers in lurking destroyers it might conceal. Due north, Mount Auckland raised itself, a yellow and white peak, clear of the shroud of vapour which enveloped the lower cliff-line of Quelpart. As the sun rose, the colour of the seas changed from dull grey to blue. In the midst of all this crispness of spring atmosphere and beauty of scene, the Baltic Fleet, the last hope of Russia in the Far East, was steaming to its doom. With his two squadrons in line ahead steering parallel courses, the battleships to port and the cruisers to starboard, with the transports and repair ships between the lines, Rojdestvensky set his teeth and steered for Tsushima, the great bluff clump of sentinel rock which was the "switch-board" of all Togo's intelligence. Never before in the history of sea warfare had necessity dictated a simpler stratagem. But it was a majestic sight. The imagination can conjure the picture. The line of dead - black - painted battleships, eleven of them, weatherstained and smoke-begrimed, conforming to the direction of the Kniaz - Suvaroff; followed by the three squat coast-defence ships, wallowing in uncertain alignment in the troughs of the heavy seas. Half a mile to starboard the ancient armoured cruisers followed in the wake of the Admiral Nakhimoff, up making with difficulty, though tide and sea were with them, the ten knots which kept them abreast of the flag-ship. Behind them the more modern and smaller protected cruisers, kicking and plunging in the lumpy sea, as if protesting at the little flutter of bunting from the Kniaz-Suvaroff, which kept them churning their propellers behind three obsolete iron coffins when they should have been patrolling the passage now looming up in front of them. Majestically, with the morning sun to their backs, the armada ploughed eastwards. About seven o'clock the cruiser squadron was able to make out on its starboard beam the outline of a warship disentangling itself from the horizon mist. Its three funnels proclaimed the newcomer to be of the Idzumo class, and the Vladimir Monomakh, which was steaming third in the Russian line, was ordered to deal with the intruder. These two vessels exchanged the first shots of the great battle of Tsushima; but the Japanese cruiser had not yet come to fight, she stayed long enough to finally satisfy herself as to the formation, course, and exact composition of Rojdestvensky's fleet, and then disappeared back into the mists out of which she had come, transmitting information to the admiral as she went. Togo could not have wished for other information. Rojdestvensky was playing absolutely into his hands. Cables were slipped, and by ten o'clock the Japanese fleet was at sea. The crisis for which they had been waiting and preparing for the last three months was at hand, and the three main squadrons, under the command of Admirals Togo, Kamimura, and Kata-oka respectively, shaped their courses to their appointed stations. It had been evident to the commander of the Idzumo that Admiral Rojdestvensky was steering for the Straits to the south of Tsushima. The main point in Togo's stratagem was to allow his adversary into the Japan Sea, and there, by virtue of his own superior speed, to intern him, and then destroy him at his own convenience. The Japanese entered into the struggle with every confidence. They had the self-reliance built up of the knowledge that they had already destroyed one Russian fleet superior to their own in weight and numbers, they had all the advantages of pace and position, and every one of their heavy guns had been replaced. Precisely at eleven o'clock the Japanese Third Squadron in the following order, the Kasuga, Niitaka, Chitose, and the Tsushima, appeared on the port bow of the Russian Battle Squadron. As they manoeuvred on this flank the Russian admiral possibly anticipated that the object of their manoeuvre was to cut off the transports and impedimenta squadron; he therefore ordered the Nicholas I. and Sissoi Veliki to attend to Kata-oka's cruisers. A little long-range firing from the Russian Second Battle Squadron, and the protected cruisers sheered off Almost immediately, having passed the Straits of Tsushima, the Russian Central Asia, will be in any haste to say that the UrgaKalgan line is a physical impossibility. In the light of the future and of past events in Manchuria it is a problem of the deepest interest, at any rate to soldiers, to consider what might have been the result in the present war had a few years more been allowed to Russia to develop and mature her strategical railways in and around that unfortunate country. That any such line will now be built is unlikely. That is to say, if China is wise. At the present time she is engaged in pushing on what would have been the last 150 miles of the Russian line, the portion from Pekin to Kalgan this in order to connect the Mongolian plateau and borderland with the capital. From time immemorial the ancient caravan route has passed this way, traversing the Nankou pass. And if only the Chinese could be sufficiently far-seeing, and possessed the necessary strength of purpose to keep the entire capital in their own hands, this new line, through its bearing upon modern trading enterprise at Tientsin and Pekin, should, by the profits it earns, go far to reconcile the Chinese to railway enterprise in the interior. Urga is situated on the northern edge of the so-called Gobi desert, in Eastern Mongolia. To Russia it has for a long time past been a valuable base from whence one able political agent after disseminated another has Russian influence, and possibly something more tangible, among the Mongolian princes of the eastern tribes. At the time of the writer's visit Russia was represented by M. Schismaroff, who, like not a few of the versatile and capable public servants of the Czar, is not of pure Russian extraction. To his intimate acquaintance with their character and customs was no doubt due a considerable portion of his success in moulding the native element he was called upon to handle. a The approach to Urga from the south, as seen in the early rains, is decidedly picturesque. Riding in, the country was everywhere covered with beautiful carpet of fresh green turf, which, following suddenly upon the bare expanse of stony desert, was most comforting to the eyes. After the eternal flatness of the last month it was indeed a treat to pass over rolling green hills heavily wooded in a darker shade, which contrasted in colour as nature alone knows how to paint. Anything more unlike what imagination pictures the deserts of Mongolia to be it is hard to imagine. The town itself, though town in the European sense it is not, lies on the north side of a small river, by name the Tola. The valley through which the river flows is shut in by hills towards the east, and varies from a mile to one and a half mile in breadth. Strictly speaking neither a town, a |