Economic Development of the Siberian North
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104 ANDPAPERS SHORT NOTES three-eighth-inch nylon rope along the overhand loop knotsto obtain maxi- left side of the train with the loop just mum efficiency and comfort. behind the centre of the rear sled and the ends extending about 6 ft. in front Summary of the toboggan. Passone loose end through a snap link on the lower front Motortoboggan sled trainshave left corner of the canvas tank on the established theirvalue for antarctic front sled, throughanother snap link trail work.The capital outlay and tiedto the left side of the winch, maintenance costs are low compared through the eye bolts (G) on the left with other vehicles and the trains can side of the the toboggan near the front be operated in relative safety and rea- and then across the front of the tobog- sonable comfort. Very few mechanical gan. Tie the ropeinto a hole drilled troublesare encountered during the into the front of the right ski. Pass the first season of use providing the tobog- other loose end also through the snap gansreceive proper care. Thetobog- link at the front left corner of the tank gans are large enough to move all trail on the front sled, through a snap link andsurvival equipment and supplies tied to the centre of the front crossbar needed by geological or surveying par- of the sled, through a snap link tied to ties but are small enough to be man- the right side of the winch, along the handled into and out of aircraft when right side of the toboggan, through the desirable. Onetoboggan can pull at eye bolts on the right front, across the least 2000 lbs. over normal snow sur- front of the toboggan and tie to theleft faces and approximately 6 ton-miles of ski. Take the loop end of the rope, de- payloadmoving is obtainedfor each termine the proper length and tie over-gallon of gasoline consumed. An aver- hand loop knots(E) oneach side. age of 50 mi. per day can be travelled Fasten each loop to an outside eye bolt under good conditions. Working from a on the guide bar with a snap link. basecamp trailparties can cover an Tie the end of a three-sixteenth-inch area with a radius of at least 200 mi. nylon cord, the “stop” rope (K), to the DONALDE. SOHOLT” throttle and pass the other end back- CAMPBELL CRADDOCK” ward through a snap link at the top of the jerrycan on the left runner of the Iswithinbank, C. 1962. Motorsledges in tobogganand throughthe snap links the Antarctic. Polar Record,No. 72265-9. used for the left steering rope. Tie the ZMogensen, P. 1962. Remote control of end to the right centre eye on theguide motor toboggan trains. Arctic Institute of bar. Tie a similar rope, the “go” rope North America. 10 pages, mimeogr. (L), to the throttle and pass it forward School Earth Sciences, University through a snap link tied to the steering * of of Minnesota. column and then backward through the set of snap links used for the“stop” and left steering ropes. Tie this rope to the left centre eye on the guide bar. The ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT throttle ropes should have a little slack OF THE SIBERIAN NORTH to prevent interference with the steer- ing ropes. It isworthwhile to tie a small Soviet scientists regard all territory flag to the “stop” rope for identification tothe north of theTrans-Siberian and a few knots near its end for a betterRailway asthe Siberian North. The grip. region treated in this paper is thatlying The engine isstarted, shifted into between the eastern slopes of the North forward gear at low throttle and left Ural and Polar Ural in the west and the idling. The driver takes his place near Yenesey-Lena divide in the east. It has the front of the rear sled and starts the anarea of more than 3 million km.2 toboggan moving by a steady pullat the (1,150,000 mi?),which is one-seventh “go” rope. Thelength of the steering of the whole territory of the U.S.S.R., ropescan be adjusted byretying the butits populationrepresents only 1.2 SHORT PAPERS AND NOTES 105 per cent of the total population of the the deep waters of the Ob and its trib- country. utaries. The bulk of the Russian popu- TheSiberian North has a severe lation is employed inagriculture and climate, large areas of permafrost, and industry, which began to develop there extremelylarge natural resources, in the last decade. which arestill not fully known. The There is a railway from Nadezhdinsk region has few industrial centres and to the station of Polunochnaya in the it is linked with the rest of the country north.Several iron ore deposits are by seasonal shipping onthe great Sibe- beingworked there, supplying oreto rianrivers, the Ob andthe Yenesey, the iron and steel plants of the North and via the Kara Sea, which freezes in Ural. Sawmills were built in the 1930’s the winter. Only a spur of the Pechora in Belogorie, at the confluence of the Railway reaches the lower Ob, termi- Irtysh and Ob. natingat the station of Lybytnangy. The waters of the Ob are rich in fish. Apart from this there is only one other Up to 30,000 tons (66 million lbs.) of railwayline, 110 km. (70 mi.) long, fish are now landed there annually, in- linking the industrial centre of Norilsk cludingsuch rare species aswhite with Dudinka, a sea and river port on salmon and sturgeon. The Yamal Na- the Yenesey. tional District hasmore than one- The Siberian Northis industrially the quarter of the total number of reindeer leastdeveloped part of thenorthern in the Soviet Union. areas of the Soviet Union. It is a for- The timber reserves of the northern biddingland, whose development re- Ob basin are estimated at 4,500 million quires larger expenditures than that of m.3 (190,000 million board feet).The themore southern areas in the zone forests of this area are 2,000 km. (1,250 along the Trans-Siberian Railway. mi.) closer to the European part of the The20-year economic plan of the U.S.S.R. than those of Eastern Siberia Soviet Union envisages the fastest de- andfor this reason they have been velopment ratesfor the eastern parts given a high priority as regards forest of thecountry, especially thecentral development. Constructionof the Ivdel- andsouthern belts of Siberia,which Ob railway line, which will run through have climatic conditions favourable for the principal forests of this part of Sibe- humanhabitation and very large na- ria, was to be completed in 1963. The tural resources. However, the recently timber reserves of the forests adjoining discovered huge oil and gas deposits, as the railway are estimated at 2,500 mil- well asthe country’s largesthydro- lion m.3 (106,000 million bd. ft.). Four power potential and its largest timber timber industry complexes areto be set resources are located to the north of the up in this area under the development Trans-SiberianRailway. This is the scheme. They will include paper- and reason for newplans thatare under pulp-mills, plants for the production of way now to developindustry also in chemicals from wood, and factories for the northern regions, although the ef- making prefabricated houses, chip- fortrequired will bemuch greater board, etc. thanthat necessary in centraland One of the largest oil and gas fields southern Siberia. in the Soviet Union has been found in the West Siberian Depression. Thetotal The northern Ob basin area of thispromising field is much Thenorthern part of the Ob basin largerthan the famous Ural-Wolga includestwo national districts, the field, which is now the largest of the Khanty-Mansi andthe Yamal. They U.S.S.R. Individualgushers inthe have been inhabited from time imme- southern part of the Depressionhave morial by such northern peoples as the yieldedover 1,000 tons (7,800 bbl.) of Khanty, Mansi, Nentsy, and Selkupy. oil a day (in the area of Surgut, Kras- Their main occupations have been and noleninskoe, Ust-Balyk). The oil is of still are reindeer breeding (particularly the Cambrian type, sulphur-free,and on the tundra), hunting, and fishing in with a large percentage of light frac- 106 SHORT PAPERS AND NOTES tions, a so-called “white”petroleum. This is 200 km. (125 mi.) from Berezovo Oil straightfrom the well head has and its reserves are estimated at100,000 been used experimentally as automobilemillion m.3(3.5 billion ft.3),which is fuel without prior refining. twice that of the famousSaratov gas A large deposit of natural gaswas field in theEuropean part of the U.S.S.R. discovered in thearea of Berezovo- Even greater are the gas reserves in- Igrim, and construction of an 800-km. vestigated in the basins of the Nadym, (500-mile) pipeline from Serovto Igrim Pur,and Taz riversin the northern was started in 1963. At Punginsk a gas part of the West Siberian Depression. field was discovered a short while ago. The reserves of the Taz field alone are Arctic Ocean Fig. 1. Resources of northwestern Siberia. SHORT PAPERS AND NOTES 107 believed to be 2 billion m.3 (7 billion national districts,Taimyr and Evenk. ft.3) and the estimated reserves of the The exploitation of natural resources whole West Siberian Depression amount began here muchearlier. Placer gold to a total of 10 billion m.3 (35 billion waswashed on the Yeneseyridge as ft.3). It is planned to extend the pipe- earlyas the secondhalf of the 19th line eventually a further400 to 500 km.