.

Sakhalin island, which separates the Gulf of Tartary from the Ohotsk
sea, extends through nine degrees of latitude and belongs partly to
Russia and partly to Japan. The Japanese have settlements in the
Southern portion, engaging in trade with the natives and catching and
curing fish. The natives are of Tunguze origin, like those of the
lower Amoor, and subsist mainly upon fish. The Russians have
settlements at Cape Dui, where there is excellent coal in veins
eighteen feet thick and quite near the coast. Russia desired the
entire island, but the Japanese positively refuse to negotiate. Some
years ago the Siberian authorities established a colony near the
Southern extremity, but its existence was brief.

At three o'clock in the afternoon of September eleventh we entered the
mouth of the Amoor, the great river of Asiatic Russia. The entrance is
between two Capes or headlands, seven miles apart and two or three
hundred feet high. The southern one, near which we passed, is called
Cape Pronge, and has a Gilyak village at its base. Below this cape the
hills border the Gulf and frequently show precipitous sides. The
shallow water at their base renders the land undesirable for
settlement. The timber is small and indicates the severity of the cold
seasons. In their narrowest part the Straits are eight miles wide and
frozen in winter. The natives have a secure bridge of ice for at least
four months of the year. De Castries Bay is generally filled with ice
and unsafe for vessels from October to March.

From the time we entered the Gulf of Tartary the water changed its
color, growing steadily dirtier until we reached the Amoor. At the
mouth of the river I found it a weak tea complexion, like the Ohio at
its middle stage, and was told that it varied through all the shades
common to rivers according to its height and the circumstances of
season. I doubt if it ever assumes the hue of the Missouri or the
Sacramento, though it is by no means impossible.

Passing Cape Pronge and looking up the river, a background of hills
and mountains made a fine landscape with beautiful lights and shadows
from the afternoon sun. The channel is marked with stakes and buoys
and with beacons along the shore. The pilots when steering frequently
turned their backs to the bow of the steamer and watched the beacons
over the stern. As we approached Nicolayevsk there was a mirage that
made the ships in port appear as if anchored in the town itself.

We