bors.

The Cossacks are moved oftener than the peasants, as they are more
directly subject to orders. I found the Cossack villages on the Amoor
were generally laid out with military precision, the streets where the
ground permitted being straight as sunbeams, and the houses of equal
size. Usually each house had a small yard or flower garden in its
front, but it was not always carefully tended. Every village has a
chief or headman, who assigns each man his location and watches over
the general good of his people. When Cossacks are demanded for
government service the headman makes the selection, and all cases of
insubordination or dispute are regulated by him.

A Cossack is half soldier and half citizen. He owes a certain amount
of service to the government, and is required to labor for it a given
number of days in the year. He may be called to travel as escort to
the mail or to an officer, to watch over public property, to row a
boat, construct a house, or perform any other duty in his power. In
case of war he becomes a soldier and is sent wherever required. As a
servant of government he receives rations for himself and family, but
I believe he is not paid in money. The time belonging to himself he
can devote to agriculture or any other employment he chooses.

The Cossacks reside with their families, and some of them acquire
considerable property. A Russian officer told me there were many
wealthy Cossacks along the Argoon river on the boundary between Russia
and China. They trade across the frontier, and own large droves of
cattle, horses, and sheep. Some of their houses are spacious and
fitted with considerable attempt at luxury. The Amoor settlements are
at present too young to possess much wealth.

Soon after leaving Ekaterin-Nikolskoi we entered the Buryea or Hingan
mountains. This chain extends across the valley of the Amoor at nearly
right angles, and the river flows through it in a single narrow
defile. The mountains first reach the river on the northern bank, the
Chinese shore continuing low for thirteen miles higher up. There are
no islands, and the river, narrowed to about half a mile, flows with a
rapid current. In some places it runs five miles an hour, and its
depth is from fifty to a hundred feet. The mountains come to the river
on either bank, sometimes in precipitous cliffs, but generally in
regular slopes.

Their elevation is about a thousand feet, and they are covered to
their summits with dense f