y has progressed
peacefully since that period.

As the Argoon from its mouth to Lake Kerolun forms the boundary
between the empires I lost sight of China when we entered the Shilka.
As I shivered on the steamer's bridge, my breath congealing on my
beard, and the hills beyond the Amoor and Argoon white with the early
snow of winter, I could not see why the Celestials call their land the
'Central Flowery Kingdom.'

The Shilka has a current flowing four or five miles an hour. The
average speed of the Korsackoff in ascending was about four miles. The
river wound among mountains that descended to the water without
intervening plateaus, and only on rare occasions were meadows visible.
The forests were pine and larch, with many birches. The lower part of
the Shilka has very little agricultural land, and the only settlements
are the stations kept by a few Cossacks, who cut wood for the steamers
and supply horses to the post and travelers in winter.

The first night after leaving the Amoor there was a picturesque scene
at our wooding station. The mountains were revealed by the setting
moon, and their outline against the sky was sharply defined. We had a
large fire of pine boughs burning on the shore, and its bright flames
lighted both sides of the river. The boatmen in their sheepskin coats
and hats walked slowly to and fro, and gave animation to the picture.
While I wrote my journal the horses above me danced as though
frolicking over a hornet's nest, and reduced sentimental thoughts to a
minimum. To render the subject more interesting two officers and the
priest grew noisy over a triple game of cards and a bottle of vodki. I
wrote in my overcoat, as the thermometer was at 30 deg. with no fire in
the cabin.

We frequently met rafts with men and horses descending to supply the
post stations, or bound on hunting excursions. I was told that the
hunters float down the river on rafts and then make long circuits by
land to their points of departure. The Siberian squirrel is very
abundant in the mountains north of the Shilka, and his fur is an
important article of commerce.

We stopped at Gorbitza, near the mouth of the Gorbitza river, that
formerly separated Russia and China and was the boundary up to 1854.

Above this point the villages had an appearance of respectable age not
perceptible in the settlements along the Amoor. Ten or twelve miles
from our wooding place we met ice coming out of the Chorney river, but
it gave us