Note 9 — Chapter XLII · THE MIDDLE AMUR.

In the Bureya district in August thick fogs rest on the river in the morning, and the nights are cold. The amount of snow throughout the winter is about 4½ feet or more. The climate, however, on the Amur, which is most favourable, is that found between the mouths of the Sungari and Ussuri, though even here the river is ice-bound during five or six months. At Khabarofka it freezes about the end of November and opens in the beginning of May. Snow covers the ground to the depth of a foot or a foot and a half, and even 2½ feet in exceptional winters. Below the mouth of the Sungari the Amur divides into several streams, and many islands have been formed in its bed. The river, too, changes its course, and runs to the north-east, which seems to be a direct continuation of the Sungari. In fact, this river has been claimed by some as the parent river. The Russians, however, could well afford to allow the Chinese to establish this relationship, for then the Tsar would be entitled to the greater part of Manchuria, the treaty giving Russia all the land “north of the Amur,” to which John Chinaman would probably object.