Note 7 — Chapter XL · THE UPPER AMUR.

Albazin, as already stated, is noted in Siberian annals for the sieges it stood, and one of the Russian stories connected therewith is, that when the garrison was greatly distressed for food, Chernigoffsky sent a pie, weighing 40 or 50 lbs., to the Chinese commander, to convince him that the fort was well provisioned. This present was so well appreciated, that the Chinaman sent for more, but in vain. History does not say whether the pie was of beef, mutton, pork, or puppies! The remains of walls, moats, ditches, and mounds, showing the site and extent of the town, may still be traced; and, by digging, the curious may still find there bricks, shreds of pottery, arms, etc. In Maack’s celebrated work on the Amur, his plan represents Albazin as a square of 240 feet, and the Chinese camp as a parallelogram of 670 feet long and 140 wide. The Amur measures here 580 yards wide.