With some account of the River Amoor. 235 



small portion of the right bank near the mouth of the river ; in all 

 likelihood from the fort of Alexandrovsk, in the Bay of Castries, north- 

 ward. On the other hand, the latest* accounts received, seem to show 

 that the Manchoo officials still exercise authority over the inhabitants of 

 the left bank of the river, along a large portion of its course. They have 

 posts at various points on both sides of the stream. Again, in Russian 

 maps, the boundary is represented in 1 852 by a line drawn from the river 

 Argun, in about lat. 49° 25' N. to the coast, in about lat. 44° 20' N. 

 Showing evidently, whatever may be the extent of the region over which 

 the Russian sway actually extends at present, that the boundary is 

 intended some time or other to reach the line thus indicated. If, how- 

 ever, we take the left bank of the Amoor to be the virtual boundary, 

 then the Russians have obtained an accession of territory in the Amoor- 

 land from the Chinese beyond what they possessed by the treaty of 

 Nertschinsk, equal to more than twice the extent of the island of Great 

 Britain— (110,000 Ger. sq. m. = 176,000 geo. sq. m.)t 



The river Amoor, as has been already observed, is formed by the Argun 

 and the Shilka, two streams which unite their waters in latitude 59° 19' 

 27" N., Ion. 121° 50' 7" E. The former, under the name of the 

 Kerlon, rises in the Kentei hills, part of the Altai range, to the S.E. 

 of lake Baikal; flows first S.E., and then N.E., and during part of 

 its course forms the boundary between the dominions of Russia and 

 China. It is navigable, at least as far up as Argunsk, ten miles below 

 which Schrenk was stopped by the ice, on October 9th, 1856. The 

 Shilka is formed by the union of the Anon and Ingoda, which takes 

 place about forty miles above Nertschinsk (the former rising hard by the 

 source of the Argun in the Kentei hills), and is navigable, at all events, 

 as we have seen, from Shilkinsk, whence the flotillas of stores, troops, 

 and settlers appear to have been despatched on their way to the mouth 

 of the Amoor. For the last 130 miles of its course, or thereby, the 

 banks of the Shilka are rocky, barren, and uninhabited. As far as the 

 lesser Gorbiza, a distance of about forty-six miles, both banks are com- 

 posed chiefly of gray limestone, with seams of white marble of consider- 

 able thickness. Farther on, the limestone is replaced by granite-syenite 

 and syenite-porphyry, in the former of which ai-e inclosed large crystals 

 of feldspath. In some places the syenite changes to diabas, and both 

 these minerals continue to be seen for a space of nearly fifty miles, after 



" Schrenk , dated Irkutsk, November, 185G. 



t By intelligence dated St. Petersburg, August 21st, we are authoritatively informed 

 that the Chinese have conceded the Amoor as tlie mutual boundary between their own 

 territories and those of Russia, liy the same treaty, Russia gains possession of both 

 banks of tlie Amoor from lake Kisi northward. 



