Geographical Notices. 53 
Art. X.—Geographical Notices. No. V. 
The proceedings in China and Japan have attracted universal 
attention. The advances of Russia, however, in developing the 
Tesources of its legitimate territory and in acquiring new do- 
mains, have been conducted in a manner so quiet as to escape 
general attention and elude the opposition of diplomatic vigil- 
ance. Siberia has been so little known, and so much depreciated 
by the world at large, that the accession of some thousands of 
_ +0 satisfy in part such inquiries, the Government at Wash- 
ington has lately published (Wash, 67 Fp. 8vo) a “Report of 
Explorations on the Amoor river,” which w 
by Mr. P. McD. Collins, an American citizen, who received from 
the President, in 1856, an appointment, without a , as 
“ United States Commercial Agent for the Amoor river,” and 
who travelled over land from the Baltic to the Pacific, endeavor- 
ing to ascertain what relations might be established with advan- 
tage between our own country and the possessions of Russia in 
Eastern Asia. 
