102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan., 



better speed without it. The Amur is a wonderful river. 

 More than a mile wide, it is like a great lake. It flows through 

 prairie country, a splendid tillable land, which some day will 

 raise a large part of the world's wheat supply. The Amur 

 River is the boundary between Russia in Asia and China. 

 China on the south and Russia on the north. It is a splendid 

 country. Mountains are occasionally seen in the distance, but 

 for the most part it is prairie, and the river banks show at 

 least ten feet of soil. 



(Photograph No. 36.) 



At a small village we passed we found a crowd of women 

 at the gangplank selling strawberries. 



(Photograph No. 37.) 



I bought two quarts for 40 kopecks, or 20 cents of our 

 money. We had to take on wood frequently, and as it was all 

 carried on board by hand from woodpiles high up on the river 

 bank, our progress was very slow. 



(Photograph No. 38.) 



As we passed through the Kingan Mountain section the 

 scenery on the river became very fine. At one of our stopping 

 places w^e took on board a correspondent of a Paris journal, 

 who was racing around the world with a representative of 

 another Paris journal, one going east and the other west. 



During the trip to Blagovestchenk we frequently ran 

 aground and were delayed by having to tie up at the bank and 

 take on wood. Upon our arrival at the city we found it to be 

 constructed of good buildings, and to possess wide streets and 

 good stores. After leaving Blagovestchenk we had the same 

 sort of experiences as before, our boat frequently running 

 aground, but we had the consolation of finding other vessels 

 and steamers on the river in the same predicament. Traveling 

 on the Amur in low water is not pleasant. The insects infest- 

 ing that country were very annoying. We were especially 

 tormented by enormous horse flies, fully an inch long. One 

 of the most interesting things in natural scenery that we found 

 upon the trip was the so-called White Mountains, or Tsaigon 

 • Mountains I think they are called. They are uneven hills of 

 sand rock, several hundred feet high, which bordered the river, 

 and which are continually breaking off and wearing away. 

 The strata and layers visible seemed to be on fire. The smoke 

 is visible in points in the day, and it is said the fire is seen in 



