the empire, and into all its districts, as his rambles might require. "This slip of paper," he says, "proved a talisman wherever presented in his dominions, and swept down every obstacle raised to bar my progress." "In his artistic travels he took a wide range: "comprising a distance traversed of about 32,000 versts in carriages, 7,100 in boats, and 20,300 on horseback; in all 59,400 versts, about 39,500 miles, in the course of seven years." It would be entertaining to pass in review his entire narrative, with its pleasant digressions, historic, scientific, romantic, to look in upon the metallic and mineral opulence of the Oural, to glide over the crystal lakes of the Altai, to penetrate the gorges of the mountains echoing with the fall of cataracts, to course over the plains of Mongolia, to sweep across the deserts of Tartary, to visit the proud chieftains of steppe and cliff, and to return laden with the spoils of high art. But we purpose now to survey only a fraction of the field over which this adventurous traveler would take us the country of the Amoor.

Attention has recently been directed to the acquisition, by the Russian empire, of vast territories in Asia. It has been well understood, for some years, that this colossal power was crowding back the effete dynasties of the extreme East, and planting its strong-holds far on toward the center of the conti nent. On the event of the Crimean campaign, disastrous to Russian arms and to the hereditary policy of the Czars, a new impulse was given to the Asiatic growth of the empire. The death of Nicholas seemed to end the old order of things, and that ambition which had aspired to the control of the Dardanelles, was temporarily suspended or turned into new channels.

The coronation of Alexander ushered in a new era of Russian development. Serfdom was stricken down by an imperial blow. Internal improvements were crowded forward by imperial endowments. Capable and practical men were summoned to the counsels of the Czar. A wise colonial policy was projected for the outlying empire. The means of communication between Russia and China were promoted. The fleets and fortifications of the Euxine were forgotten, and a bold plan

was matured for the creation of an oceanic marine. Russia, gigantic on the land, would strive for supremacy on the seas. A masterly diplomacy was employed at the celestial court, and soon the announcement came that the magnificent valley of the Amoor had been ceded to Russia. Cossack posts were immediately planted along the river, and the frowning fortress of Nicholaiofsk bristled defiantly at its mouth. When Mr. Collins passed down the Amoor, American steamers, built in Philadelphia, were ascending the stream; and now the epoch of trade, commerce, and agriculture has fairly dawned upon this new land. The celestial circles are reversed, and eastward the star of empire takes its way.

The approach to this new realm is along the old trade-routes of Siberia, over which the oriental merchants have for a century borne their wares to the great fairs at which the products of half a continent are exchanged, and on which the exiles of the empire have journeyed to their weary tasks, in the mines. It was at Irkoutsk, the capital of oriental Siberia, that the expeditions were organized for the annexation of the Amoor, and here Mr. Atkinson saw the preparations which were made for that important historical event. Chests of arms, batteries of heavy artillery, and robust Cossacks to use them, predicted that Russia was in downright earnest, and so the sequel proved it to be. This city, 3,500 miles from Moscow, with a population of 20,000, is described as well-planned and well-built, possessing much architectural beauty and elegance, and supplied with the luxuries of occidental capitals. To Mr. Collins, "with its turrets, steeples, towers, domes and crosses, it really seemed like enchantment." Mr. Atkinson was surprised to find "architectural edifices possessing so much taste, in these far off regions." He speaks of palatial mansions, and of churches, which are monuments of architecture that few Europeans have surpassed.

Forty miles up the rapid current of the Angara is the Baikal, a lake between five and six hundred miles in length, with most picturesque surroundings. This is the "Holy Sea" of the natives, awful from its profound depth, and the roar of its billows into resounding caverns, and upon rocky promontories,

which rise twelve hundred feet aloft. Russian enterprise has overcome the dangers of its navigation, and Mr. Atkinson crossed it in one of the regular steamers which now ply from shore to shore. This lake is the water-center of northern Asia, drawing its supplies from three hundred sources, in almost every direction, and discharging its floods by the Angara alone in angry rapids, which surge over a mile in breadth, down a steep descent. It is connected by almost uninterrupted water communication with the seas of the north, the east and the west, while from the south it is fed by the Selenga, which drains a territory containing 20,000,000 of people. Eastward are the rich mines of Nertchinsk, the dreaded goal of exiled peasant and noble, and from which there are no returning footsteps. The unwritten history of the exiles is of tragic import; it includes the servile toil of princes, and the touching devotion of their wives; the forced exile of the former, by imperial mandate, and the self-exile of the latter, under the frowning decree that "no lady who followed her husband to his place of exile, should ever return."

To find a practicable outlet from this interior region, was the problem which Russian enterprise and diplomacy solved in the acquisition of the Amoor. Wealth was there, in the productive soil, and the exhaustless mines. Trade was there, flowing in slow tides, over long lines, to the centers of inland traf fic. There, too, was a demand for the products of other regions, in the populations already accessible, and in the resources which were awaiting development. By a stroke of policy, as sudden as it was sagacious, the only available outlet was secured.

A vast tract two-thirds of the whole length of the southern frontier of Siberia and of various breadth, fronting with an immense coast-line on the Pacific, sufficient in itself for a kingdom, was added, as if by magic, to the previously continental dimensions of the Russian Empire. Two hundred years ago Manjouria was the theater of a hard struggle between the Russians and Chinese; but numbers overpowered bravery, and the Cossack warriors, after deeds of valor which have per

petuated their names, were forced to retire. Russia renounced all title to her settlements there, and the Sea of Okhotsk became the southwestern terminus of her boundary. But now Manjouria has become the theater of a peaceful victory, and, without a conflict, the Cossacks are again fortified on its soil. So Russia holds the Amoor, whose navigable waters extend inland for more than twenty-two hundred miles, and drain, with its affluents, a territory of nine hundred thousand square miles. Its tributaries are themselves noble rivers, often measured by hundreds of miles,* visiting realms that have been hitherto inaccessible and contributing to form a water-way which pours in a strong tide, two miles in breadth and two hundred feet deep, into the sea, and invites the commerce of the world. Mr. Atkinson's descriptions of the country of the Amoor reverse our ideas of Siberian rigor. Instead of sterility and desolation we have here a land attractive in its scenery, and productive in its soil, and opulent in all the native resources of national wealth. He says, "The climate is not so horrible as many have supposed, nor is the earth a perpetual mass of ice at a few feet below the surface. The summers are not so long as in Europe, but they are very hot, and the country produces a magnificent flora. Vegetables of almost every variety can be grown here." "This country has charms for every class; the agriculturist and the grazier would look upon it with delight in anticipation of the crops and herds of fat cattle it would produce; the horticulturist would view its sloping hills, and think of the clusters hanging on his vines and the vintage which would ensue in a country where the grape is indigenous; and the florist would be charmed with the variety and beauty of its flora; the miner would scan the mountains and think of the mineral wealth they contain; and the sportsman could indulge in the favorite pursuit of almost every kind of feathered and large game, from a woodcock to a tiger; while the lover of nature would gaze on the great stream and its accompanying scenes with admiration." "Everything indicates

The Soungaria is one thousand miles long and its tributary, the Noun, flows five hundred miles before it joins the Soungaria.

that population, under a proper government, is alone wanting to make this part of Asia as valuable as the best portions of Europe." "Russia has obtained a territory more valuable than all the supposed cotton districts of Africa, watered by hundreds of streams flowing into the great artery that passes through its entire length. The climate is good and well suited for Europeans; its luxuriant herbage and magnificent flora prove that the temperature is neither severe in winter nor excessively hot in summer." "Oaks clothe the mountain slopes, elms stretch forth their branches, and the ash pushes out her graceful foliage, while the hazel and wild rose cover the forest with underwood." pp. 315, 347, 352, 370, 342.

The population already clustered along the Amoor consists of semi-barbarous tribes; Daourians, Gelyaks, Goldi, Manjours, Manyargs, Toungouz, and numerous others, offsets from more southern people, of diverse races, with manifold habits and customs, subsisting mainly by the rude arts of hunting and fishing, though occasionally cultivating gardens and raising stock. They vary in disposition and in susceptibility to the influences of civilization. Mr. Collins writes, "The traits common to all the tribes are idolatry and Schamanism, independence of every male person, polygamy, slavery, and oppres sion of females and purchase of wives." Their religion is a

gross heathenism.

The policy of Russia is to invade this barbarous region by the forces of a peaceful colonization, led, however, by armed Cossacks, whose garrisoned strong-holds will give a moral, and, if need be, a physical, support to the colonists. For this the materials are at hand. As to the qualifications of the Russian peasant for this work of civilization, we have this testimony of Mr. Atkinson: "No man can better adapt himself to circumstances. He is ingenious, can turn his hand to any occupation; indeed, by the aid of his axe and saw alone he will build his dwelling and be his own cabinet-maker. He is his own tailor and shoemaker, grows his flax, and his wife and children spin and weave the linen. In short, there are few necessaries which these people cannot prepare. Generally he is a good hunter, and understands the use of his rifle;