With some acctmnt of the River A moor. 243 



places for drying nets and fish ; and at a little distance from the river 

 are to be seen cages containing bears. Among all the tribes, especially 

 among the Giljaks, the bear is an object of the most tender solicitude to 

 the whole village ; and in their religious ceremonies he plays the first 

 part, and also the last, as far as he is concerned, for he is ultimately 

 slain and roasted. Their fishing-boats are formed of three boards, 

 fastened with wooden nails ; and vary in size from two to sixteen oai's. 

 For short distances, when speed is the object, they use small boats made 

 of birch bark. In winter they travel on light sledges drawn by dogs. 



The purely nomadic tribes are the Orotshes, a branch of the Tunguses, 

 the Manegres, Gantses, and Kapliares. The Manegres are the most 

 numerous. They frequent the basin of the Kamara and its vicinity, 

 occupy themselves with hunting and fishing. All these nomade tribes 

 are so poor that they often subsist for weeks on service-berries, and, 

 notwithstanding the severity of the climate, go nearly half naked. 



Eespecting the climate, along the Amoor, the accounts before us give 

 little information, except such as is to be derived from the nature of the 

 vegetation that grows upon its banks. From the fact, that among trees, 

 only pines and lai-ches will thrive near the mouth of the stream, and yet, 

 at its southern bend, five and a-half degrees farther south, the grape 

 vine grows wild, and excellent tobacco is cultivated, we at once obtain a 

 general impression of the varied nature of the climate m the extensive 

 regions traversed by this mighty stream. One authority, speaking of 

 the lower Amoor, says, the summers are short, but pleasant — snow 

 melts the beginning of May. There is ice in the gulf to the middle of 

 June, though the river at Nikolajewsk is clear at an earlier period. In 

 September the mornings are cold, and in October snow falls. Schrenk 

 was stopped by ice in the Argun on October 9th, in nearly the same 

 latitude as Nikolajewsk. We shall therefore pi'obably not greatly err, 

 if we take the mouth of the Amoor to be closed somewhere from the 

 beginning to the middle of October. Admiral Newelskoi, as the result 

 of three years' observations, informs us that the ice in the firth of the 

 Amoor clears away from the 1st to the 13th of June. The season, 

 during which it is open for navigation from the ocean, may therefore be 

 taken as beginning about the middle of June, and ending at the com- 

 mencement of October. At Kisi, the Amoor is free of ice for six 

 months, and the Bay of Castries is open for eight mouths. To insure 

 a longer season for navigation than is attainable at Nikolajewsk, it is 

 said to be in contemplation to unite Kisi with the Bay of Castries by 

 moans of a railway. 



Apart from the accession of territory rich in furs, probably rich 

 in metals, and possessing large tracts with a genial climate ex- 



