With some account oftJie River A moor. 241 



nan-ovver. The Ussuri forms the boundary between the extensive plains 

 which lie higher up the Amoor, and a hill country which thence accom- 

 panies that river to the sea,-^allowing space, indeed, for its arms and 

 islands, but sometimes likewise sending high spurs to its very brink. 

 Here we meet with numerous settlements of Golde, — first two and three 

 houses together, and then in dozens. A few miles north of the village 

 of Sawaga, the Amoor separates into two broad arms, which unite again 

 into one stream at the island of St. Kirile ; but lower down, at Cape 

 Ommoi, a high round hill, the river is again divided up in a most 

 remarkable manner, exhibiting a wide stretch of water, with liere and 

 there some islands interspersed through it, and bordered at the horizon 

 with blue mountain peaks. From this point the river flows more in 

 one broad channel. However, after receiving the Goryn, Numur and 

 other shallow streams, it divides again into arms, two of which connect 

 it with lake Kisi and the post on its banks named Kisi or Mariinsk. 

 Fourteen miles before reaching ISTikolajewsk, all the arms unite again 

 to form one stream Xh to two miles broad, and twenty to thirty 

 fathoms deep. Notwithstanding the great mass of water which thus 

 flows on, with a speed of three knots an hour, to the Tartarian gulf, 

 the current is not sufiicient to clear a proper channel into the sea. 

 Behind the promontories Pronge and Tebach, near its mouth, shallows 

 begin, so that at low water the depth on the north shore is only ten 

 feet, and on the south thirteen feet, — a statement, however, that scarcely 

 talhes with the fact that frigates are known to have sailed for protection 

 right in under the guns of fort Nikolajewsk. From the TJssm-i down- 

 wards, the chief strata observed were mica and siliceous slate and sand- 

 stone; as far as island St. Kirile, siliceous slate and greenstone schist; 

 thence to lake Kisi, near which iron ore was seen; and clay-slate and 

 greenstone schist, with several varieties of iron ore, on to Nikol- 

 ajewsk. South of the mouth of the river is amygdaloid, and north 

 and south of the mouth on the seaboard, there is limestone. On 

 the left bank of the stream, below the island of St. Kirile, the hills 

 rise in four parallel ridges, one above the other, of which the last is 

 destitute of wood. The vegetation, as we descend the stream, gradually 

 changes, and assumes a more northern aspect, till about half way 

 between the Goryn and lake Kisi the foliage trees cease, and only pines 

 and larches cover the hills. The valley of the Goryn, which contains 

 several villages, is wooded both with pines and foliage trees, and is a 

 favourite hunting ground of the natives, who here take sables, foxes, 

 otters, and elks. The mouth of this river forms the northern boundary 

 of the tiger and of the Siberian stag, neither of these animals being met 

 with farther north than this point. From the mouth of the Amoor 

 Vol. IV.— No. 1. 2i 



