deposits of gold, the last and best being on the Oldoi
river, about a hundred miles north of Albazin. A ton of earth yielded
six hundred dollars worth of gold. I saw the specimens which the
captain took out in person. The gold was like the best gulch or scale
gold in California, with nuggets up to four or five ounces in weight.

Gold has been found in other localities. On several tributaries of the
Ousuree the Chinese have conducted washings for many years. The
Russian settlers near Posyet find gold in the streams flowing into the
sea. An engineer officer assured me the washings in that region could
be made profitable.

The government has recently opened the Amoor and its tributaries to
private enterprise and invited its citizens to search for gold where
they please. This is a concession in the right way, and partially
abandons the claim hitherto enforced that all mines belong to the
Imperial family. Some of the surveys of Captain Anossoff have been for
private parties at St. Petersburg, and the development of the mineral
resources of the Amoor is confidently expected in a few years. At
present the lack of laborers and machinery is a great drawback, but as
the country grows older the mining facilities will increase. It is not
impossible that a gold fever will sometime arise on the Amoor and
extend to America.

Much of the country I saw along the Amoor resembles the gold-bearing
regions on the Pacific coast. While we were taking wood at a village
above Sa-ga-yan I walked on shore and stopped at a little brook
flowing from the hills. Carelessly digging with a stick in the bottom
of this brook I brought up some black sand, which I washed on a piece
of bark. The washing left two or three shining particles that had
every appearance of gold. I wrapped them in a leaf to carry on board
the steamer, but as I afterward lost envelope and contents, the value
of my discovery is to this day unknown.

The original inhabitants along this part of the Amoor are wandering
Tungusians, in no great number and with little wealth. We saw their
huts on both banks, principally the southern one. At a Russian village
where we stopped there was a Managre hut or yourt of light poles
covered with birch bark. The covering was wound around the framework
in horizontal strips that overlapped at the edges like shingles on a
house-roof. Entering the hut I found a varied assortment of deer
skins, cooking and other utensils, dogs, dirt, and children. I