With some account of the River Amoor. 233 



their settlements and posts were destroyed, and the whole Amoorland 

 was once more brought under the dominion of the Manchoo rulers in 

 China. On the 7th of September, in the same year, a treaty of peace 

 was concluded at Nertschinsk between the belligerents, by which all 

 the Russian possessions in Manchooria, and along the Amoor, were 

 given up, after having been kept about forty years from the time of 

 their subjugation by Chabaroff. 



According to this treaty, and a subsequent one concluded at St. 

 Petersburg in 1728, the boundary between the territories of China and 

 Russia was to be formed by the Yablonoi or Stanovoi mountains, which 

 proceed east from the source of the river Gorbiza, an affluent of the 

 Shilka from the north. All the waters flowing to the Amoor were to 

 belong to China, — those flowing in the opposite direction, to belong to 

 Russia. Ignorance of local geography prevented any distinct boundary 

 line from being fixed between the point where the mountain range turns 

 northward and the sea. The Russians, however, taking the waters that 

 flow to the north, the boundary line has been understood to pass south 

 of the head waters of the rivers XJd and Maja. There being no provision 

 in the treaty for securing to Russia the right of navigating the Amoor, 

 the Chinese took advantage of the omission, and immediately closed 

 the river, in which state it remained until a few years ago. Until 

 which time, likewise, our knowledge of this great and important stream, 

 and of the country which it drains, made no material advance. Even 

 the Russian accounts of it were based merely upon the desultory infor- 

 mation obtained during their occupation of the country in the seven- 

 teenth century, and the meagre notices found in Chinese geographical 

 works. 



In 1845, the Siberian traveller, Middendorff, undertook a journey in 

 the Amoorland. He started from Udskoi, followed a zig-zag course 

 from the river Tuggur, which flows into the sea of Okhotsk, to Ust- 

 strelotschnaja at the junction of the Argun and Shilka, and discovered 

 on his route a number of Chinese boundary marks, placed not upon the 

 crest of the Yablonoi hills, but far down the affluents of the Amoor. 

 The Chinese had apparently placed the marks at the termination of the 

 boat-navigation of these affluents, beyond which Hes a hiU country 

 inhabited by tribes who depend upon the rein-deer for their livelihood 

 while the lowlands are inhabited by tribes who subsist mainly upon fish. 

 The former being nomadcs one day on the north and another on the 

 south of the Yablonoi mountains, esteem themselves Russian subjects, 

 and pay their tribute of skins to the officer in Yakutsk — the latter call 

 themselves Chinese subjects, and pay tribute to the Manchoos. It 

 would thus appear that for a period of above 150 years, an extent of 



Vol. IV.— No. 1. 2h 



