THE AMOUE-LITTOKAL BORDER LAND. 61 



of the Sea of Japan, that Lake Kizi, a lateral enlargement of the ted of the Amour on the 

 right side is only separated by a twelve-verst isthmus from the Tartar strait, a little to the 

 north of the beautiful hay of De Kastri. Here meeting with an impossible barrier to its 

 exit towards the sea, the Amour swerves to the north, and only about 53" X. lat. finally turns 

 to the sea and falls into that part of the Tartar strait which forms a part of the cold and inhos- 

 pitable Sea of Okhotsk. The left tributaries of the Amour, the Zeya and Selimdzheya, the Bureya 

 and the Argun are after the Amour the chief arteries of the Amour country. It is only in 

 the lower reaches of these streams that more or less extensive plains spread out on either 

 side; nearest the Stanovoi range and the Little Khingan the region is mountainous. 



The climate of the Amour country, although still continental, is yet characterized by 

 a greater humidity than in original Siberia. Li Blagoveschensk the mean annual tempara- 

 ture is — LS" Celsius, but the mean winter temperature is — 24°, that of the coldest 

 month — 27°, that of summer 19° and that of the hottest month 21°. This yields a difference 

 between summer and winter temperatures of 43°, and between the hottest and coldest months 

 of 48°, almost the same as in Transbaikalia. But the mean temperature of the five-months 

 vegetative period, 15°'6, is still more favourable than in the Transbaikal country, and perfectly 

 admits of the free development of agriculture, while upon the lower reaches of the Amour, 

 in Nikolaevsk, where the average temperature of the year is —2*6°, the temperature of the 

 winter — 22°, that of summer 15° and the climate is less continental, with differences of 37° 

 and 40°, the free development of agriculture is very difficult, as the mean temperature of the 

 five-months vegetative period only amounts to 11*6°. 



In the quantity of the annual rain, over 500 millimetres, of which 290 fall during the 

 three summer months, the Amour country has not only a more humid climate than Transbai- 

 kalia with 290, and the agricultural zones of Eastern and Western Siberia, 360 and 380 respec- 

 tively, but even more than their forest zones which have 400 and 470 millimetres. The excess 

 of moisture in the Amour country exercises an unfavourable influence upon agriculture, which 

 is still further intensified by the character of the vegetable covering of the region. All the 

 lower slopes of the mountain ridges and their offsets are overgrown with weeds, and the upper 

 declivities with trees which so powerfully arrest the moisture that the soil does not dry up. 

 In consequence of this the greater part of the area is covered with imbroken swamps and 

 forests, above which rise only the denuded «golets» of the rocky crests covered with stony 

 talus upon their slopes. Cereals sown upon clearings run to straw reaching an incredible 

 height, but frequently yield a poor grain sometimes not ripening completely. An exception to 

 this is shewn by a few spots situated partly along the Amour in places not drowaicd by its 

 inundations, partly near the lower course of the Zeya. There are at present few such spots 

 suitable for agriculture, and of its area of 11,000 square geographical miles not more than 

 2,000 can as yet be recognized as fit for agricultural settlement. 



Fortunately, experience has shewn that the struggle with the excess of moisinre which 

 is an impediment to tho cultivation and colonization of the Amour, which is to-day in the posi- 

 tion of Germany in the days of Tacitus, is possible. The settlers in the Amour territory blaze 

 over large areas the growths of reeds, the damp soil gradually dries and becomes converted 

 into fertile arable laud. In the course of 38 years, which had expired between the geograph- 



