Ibis dangerous to prophesy the future of the military operations, but it was generally expected that there would be some important developments shortly aber the peace commission put to sea. Allitems regarding Saghalien have been hitherto withheld" by the Press in accordance with the strict injunctions of the authorities, but at this writing it is known that a part of the Japanese expedition reached Korsakoff, Saghalien, on Friday afternoon, the 7th inst., and the Russians set the town on fire. As may be remem-dered. until prior to the opening of the war, Saghalien was almost freely used as their point d'appui by the adventurous fishermen, but one point in regard.to the natural resources of the island gives Saghalien a high economic value in these days of liquid fuel. It is stated that the petroliferous springs on the district of the river Nooteva, one of the chief rivers of the island, surpass in importance those of Baku.' There are in that district seven subterranean lakes of naphtha, one of which has an area of about 60,000 square
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.