ich is
filled by the river Kerolun, rising in the Kentei Khan mountains in
Northern Mongolia. Together the Argoon and Kerolun have a development
of more than a thousand miles. There are many Cossacks settled along
the Argoon as a frontier guard. The river is not navigable, owing to
numerous rocks and rapids.

Genghis Khan, who subdued China and began that wonderful career of
Tartar conquest that extended to Middle Europe, was born on the banks
of the Kerolun. Some of his early battles were fought in its valley.

The Shilka is formed by the Onon and Ingodah, that rise in the region
north of the head waters of the Kerolun. From the sources of the Onon
to Oust-Strelka is a distance of seven hundred and fifty miles. There
are many gold mines along this river, and the whole mountain chain is
known to be rich in minerals. Including its tributaries on both sides
and at its formation, the Amoor as it flows into the Gulf of Tartary
drains a territory of 766,000 square miles.

There is a little island just below the point of land extending
between the two rivers. As we approached it the steamer turned to the
right and proceeded up the Shilka, leaving the Amoor behind us. I may
never see this great river again, but I shall never forget its
magnificent valley and its waters washing the boundaries of two
empires and bringing the civilization of the East and West in contact.
I shall never forget its many islands, among which we wound our
tortuous way; its green meadows, its steep cliffs, and its blue
mountains, that formed an ever-changing and ever beautiful picture. I
shall never forget its forests where the yellow hues of autumn
contrasted with the evergreen pine and its kindred, and which nature
has lavishly spread to shield the earth from the pitiless storm and
give man wherewith to erect his habitation and light his hearthstone
with generous fire. Mountain, hill, forest, island, and river will
rise to me hereafter in imagination as they rose then in reality. A
voyage along the entire course of the Amoor is one that the longest
lifetime cannot efface from the memory.

For a hundred and sixty years the little post of Oust-Strelka was the
most easterly possession of Russia in the Amoor valley. In 1847
Lieutenant General Mouravieff, having been appointed Governor General
of Eastern Siberia, determined to explore the river. In the following
spring he sent an officer with four Cossacks to descend the Amoor as
far as was prudent.