of the Penobscot and
Canadian Indians. The native sits in the middle of his canoe and
propels himself with a double-bladed oar, which he dips into the water
with regular alternations from one side to the other. The canoes are
flat bottomed and very easy to overturn. A canoe is designed to carry
but one man, though two can be taken in an emergency. When a native
sitting in one of them spears a fish he moves only his arm and keeps
his body motionless. At the Russian village of Gorin there was an
Ispravnik who had charge of a district containing nineteen villages
with about fifteen hundred inhabitants. At Gorin the river is two or
three miles wide, and makes a graceful bend. We landed near a pile of
ash logs awaiting shipment to Nicolayevsk. The Ispravnik was kind
enough to give me the model of a Goldee canoe about eighteen inches
long and complete in all particulars. It was made by one Anaka
Katonovitch, chief of an ancient Goldee family, and authorized by the
emperor of China to wear the uniform of a mandarin. The canoe was
neatly formed, and reflected favorably upon the skill of its designer.
I boxed it carefully and sent it to Nicolayevsk for shipment to
America.

The Ispravnik controlled the district between Habarofka and Sofyesk on
both banks of the river, his power extending over native and Russian
alike. He said that this part of the Amoor valley was very fertile,
the yield of wheat and rye being fifteen times the seed. The principal
articles cultivated were wheat, rye, hemp, and garden vegetables, and
he thought the grain product of 1866 in his district would be thirty
thousand poods of wheat and the same of rye. With a population of
fifteen hundred in a new country, this result was very good.

The Goldees do not engage in agriculture as a business. Now and then
there was a small garden, but it was of very little importance. Since
the Russian occupation the natives have changed their allegiance from
China to the 'White Czar,' as they call the Muscovite emperor.
Formerly they were much oppressed by the Manjour officials, who
displayed great rapacity in collecting tribute. It was no unusual
occurrence for a native to be tied up and whipped to compel him to
bring out all his treasures. The Goldees call the Manjours 'rats,' in
consequence of their greediness and destructive powers.

The Goldees are superior to the Gilyaks in numbers and intelligence,
and the Manjours of Igoon and vicinity are in turn superior to th