of the Amoor operates
against rapidity. In time I presume the Siberian boats will increase
their speed.

The second day from Blagoveshchensk we were where the Amoor flows
twenty-five versts around a peninsula only one verst wide. Just above
this, at the village of Korsackoff, was the foot of another bend of
twenty-eight versts with a width of three. Borasdine and I proposed
walking and hunting across the last neck of land, but the lateness of
the hour forbade the excursion, as we did not wish to pass the night
on shore, and it was doubtful if the boat could double the point
before dark. We should have crossed the first peninsula had it not
been in Chinese territory. To prevent possible intrusion the
Celestials have a guard-house at the bend.

At the guard-house we could see half a dozen soldiers with matchlocks
and lances. There was a low house fifteen or twenty feet square and
daubed with mud according to the Chinese custom. There was a quantity
of rubbish on the ground, and a couple of horses were standing ready
saddled near it. Fifty feet from the house was a building like a
sentry-box, with two flag-staffs before it; it was the temple where
the soldiers worshipped according to the ceremonies of their faith. I
have been much with the army in my own country, but never saw a
military post of two buildings where one structure was a chapel.

Above the village of Kazakavitch, at the upper extremity of the bend,
there was some picturesque scenery. On one side there were precipitous
cliffs two or three hundred feet high, and on the other a meadow or
plateau with hills in the background. The villages on this part of the
river are generally built twenty or thirty feet above high water mark.
They have the same military precision that is observed below the Zeya,
and each has a bath house set in the bank. Frequently we found these
bath houses in operation, and on one occasion two boys came out clad
in the elegant costume of the Greek Slave, without her fetters. They
gazed at the boat with perfect _sang froid_, the thermometer being
just above freezing point. The scene reminded me of the careless
manners of the natives at Panama.

Opposite Komarskoi the cliffs on the Chinese shore are perpendicular,
and continue so for several miles. At their base there is a strong
current, where we met a raft descending nearly five miles an hour. In
going against the stream our pilots did not seek the edge of the river
like their brethren