490 SOMETHING ABOUT THE MOUTH OK THE AMOOR. 
of persons interested in the present inovement of the 
Czar as regards colonizing the banks of tliat river, I may 
as well introduce here a short synopsis of what we learned 
from the Government pilot, as well as a few remarks 
in regard to our oAvn experience, -which, while proving 
some of his information to be correct, encourages us at 
the same time to put confidence in other of his assertions 
the truth of which we never found ourselves in a position 
to test. 
He told us, then, as he smacked his lips over the long- 
untasted wine and puffed away at the equally-raro Ma- 
nilla cheroot, that charts would never be of much value 
as far as the mouth of the Amoor was concerned. Even 
he himself, he said, who had acted the pai’t of a pilot in 
those waters for several years, had to trust to his lead and 
a good look-out, the sandbanks -were so extensive and so 
liable to constant changes. There were two passages, he 
continued, but it was hard to choose between them, — the 
northern one (where we now were) being a bad lee shore 
in case of a northeast gale, besides having very little 
water, -while the southern, though carrying twelve fa- 
thoms over Avhat had long been regarded as an isthmus 
connecting the island of Sagalien with the mainland, 
soon led to patches of banks and shoals over and 
through which only ten feet could be carried, and that 
with the greatest difficulty. lie gave us a full descrip- 
tion of the manner in which the Russian squadron had 
escaped the Allies at Castrie’s Bay and passed through 
this passage ; and it seems that upon arriving at these 
banks and shoals they had to throw overboard their guns, 
&c., put casks under their larger vessels, and Avere even 
