240 Dr. Blackie on Russian Acquisitioiis in Manchooria, 



forms one of the routes by which the Chinese traders pass to the Amoor. 

 It is navigable at least as high up as Girin Chotun (667 miles), where 

 vessels for the navigation of the river are built. 



At the mouth of the Soongari, the Amoor has reached its farthest 

 south point, being 5^° to the south of Ust-strelotschnaja. From this 

 point, its course begins to be N.E., a direction which it maintains till 

 it reaches the sea. As far as the mouth of the river ITssuri, another 

 important affluent on the right, the banks, as a whole, are flat and 

 uninteresting, backed by heights at some distance, and crossed by 

 numerous streams, — at the mouth of one of which, named the Chorolog 

 or Chorolak, which falls in where the stream is encumbered by a labyi-inth 

 of islands — large numbers'of Manchoos gather in the middle of summer 

 for the purpose of fishing. StUl, the fishing in this locality does not, 

 after all, appear to have great attractions for the Manchoos, of whom, 

 with the exception of a few miserable huts, no settlements were seen 

 between the mouths of the Soongari and the TJssuri, and these were 

 not placed near the thicket of islands, but on projecting points of the 

 river's banks. The chief strata observed on this portion of the river 

 were grauwacke and greenstone schist. 



The TJssuri, for a considerable way above its junction with the 

 Amoor, continues to be of considerable breadth and depth. Its 

 banks are thinly inhabited, yet in some localities Chinese settlers carry 

 on horticulture, and raise various sorts of vegetables, such as cabbage, 

 potatoes, cucumbers, beans, melons, water-melons, gourds, and also maize 

 and red pepper ; but tobacco, the most important article of exchange, 

 both here and in the Amoor, is the chief object of attention. The 

 valley of the TJssuri presents a large region, fitted for both agriculture 

 and cattle rearing. Of the latter, none is carried on by the inhabitants, 

 probably on account of the number of beasts of prey with which the 

 valley is infested. Shortly before Schreuk visited it, a few horses kept 

 in Purmi, at the mouth of the river, had been carried off by the tigers, 

 and a like fate often befalls the domestic dogs. The inhabitants of this 

 valley are composed of GoldeandOrotsches, with a few Chinese engaged 

 in trade and horticulture, with the TJssuri, closes the uninhabited region. 

 At its mouth, when visited by Peschtschuroff, there was a Manchoo 

 post on the left bank of the Amoor ; Schrenk, who was there in 1856 

 on his journey up the river, says, here he met with the first Russian post 

 on the left bank. The Golde, who are numerous in this locality, know all 

 the creeks and islands in the river. They furnished Peschtschuroff 

 with pilots, who conducted him to the village of Sawaga, sailing during 

 the night as well as during the day, through a labyrinth of channels, 

 sometimes not more than 260 to 130 yards wide, and sometimes even 



