EXPLORATIONS OF THE AMOOR RIVER IN NORTHERN ASIA.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 110, 9 November 1858, Page 4

EXPLORATIONS OF THE AMOOR RIVER IN NORTHERN ASIA.

(Frvm the Ncio York Journal of Commerce, May IS.) The report called for by Mr. Scott, of California, a few days since, in relation to the explorations of Major P. MD. Collins on the Amoor River, will be submitted to the House in a few days. It was senUo the State Department to-day, together with two maps—one of the Amoor River, aud the other shewing the relative position of Northern Asia and our Pacific coast. The Amoor, it will be recollected, is a river second only to the Mississippi, which flows from the centre of Northern Asia into the Pacific Ocean, not far north of Japan. The report will give a general view ot the interior commerce of Russia preparatory to the grand development of Asiatic commerce and policy. Mr. Collins obtained the appointment ot commercial agent from President Pierce, for the purpose of making the exploration of the Amoor and testing the practicability of its navigation. In order to do this he was compelled to proceed by way of St. Petersburg, to obtain the permission of the Russian Government to enter the Amoor country. To have attempted its exploration from the sea, without the assistance of steam, and alone, would have been worse than folly; therefore, the necessity of entering Russia by way of the Baltic. This, of course, rendered the land journey across both Europe and Asia necessary; nor was this without policy or aim-r-it was to witness that great inland trade of Russia concentrating at Nijne Norgorod in Europe, and at Kyachta, in Asia, and to trace this line of commerce from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean. If the Amoor could be ascended by steamers, this vast country could be opened to American commerce, and the very heart of. Northern Asia made accessible to our merchants. Having obtained the appointment, he proceeded early in the spring of 1856, via England and Denmark, to Cronstadt and St. Petersburg. Owing to many circumstances, Mr. Collins was detained in St. Petersburg and Moscow until after the coronation of the present Emperor; it was not till after that event that he could obtain the necessary formal permission to prosecute his voyage. It was now too late to cross the two continents in order to reach the Amoor before winter would set in; he consequently remained in Moscow until winter fairly set in, and the roads were rendered good by a sufficient coating of snow. His detention was not without its benefits, because it gave him an opportunity to become familiar with the vast interior trade of Russia; the wealth of its great cities, and the internal resources of a vast empire; all of which was regularly communicated to the Department of State, and in the meantime to make himself familiar with the Slavonic language. Mr. Collins passed overland from St. Petersburg to the head waters of the Amoor, where he awaited the approach of spring, and then in a small boat, with oars and five Cossack soldiers furnished him by General Mouravieff, the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, proceeded down the three rivers Ingadan, Schilkah, and Amoor, to the ocean, a distance by water of some .2500 miles. As he proceeded entirely under the auspices ofthe Russian Government, he had every facility granted him in obtaining information, and for exploration. Starting from Moscow in midwinter, Mr. •Collins had the rare opportunity of testing all the terrors of the Russo-Siberian •winter upon an American constitution. Major Collins now proceeded in a sleigh, with post-horses, by way of Vladimir, Nijne Novgorod, Kazau, crossing the Ural Mountains at Ecathermeburg, and thus on by Omsk, Tomok, and Kraymoyank, to Irkoutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, 4600 miles east of St. Petersburg. Spending some time at Irkoutsk, and being hospitably entertained by General Mouravieff, Mr. Collins then visited the cities of Kyachta and Mai-mat-Tschin. These places are, by treaty between Russia and China, the only points where commerce can be conducted by the people of the two empires. They are situated about 350 miles south-east of Irkoutsk, and one thousand miles north-east of Pekin, on the frontiers of Mongolia and Siberia. Mr. Collins had the rare opportunity of witnessing the opening of the great fair at the full or " white moon" in February. # Grand feasts and entertainments were given in honor of the occasion; the town of Mai-mat-Tschin was filled with feasting and illuminated with lanterns at night. The trade concentrated here is very important—said to be 20,000,000 dollars annually, After finding its way on the backs of camels and by bullocks from Pekin, it is taken up by the Russian merchants in the winter on sledges, and in the summer by the rivers and waggons, and finds its way across Siberia to the foot of the Ural Mountains, crossing which it concentrates at the great fair of Nijne Novgorod, where the commerce of 1856 summed up to 300,000,000 of silver roubles. Upon the approach of spring, Mr. C. crossed the Staunvey Mountains, and fell upon the head waters of the Amoor. Navigation not yet being open, he made a full exploration of the gold and silver country of Nerchinsk, the mines of which are worked by the convicts from European Russia. The country is very rich in silver and gold. Returning from the tour, he awaited at Chetah the breaking of the ice in the Ingodah, whence he proceeded on his downward course to the sea. • The country along the Amoor is fully described, much of which is susceptible of farming and grazing. But the great problem as to its navigability is fully solved. x" Mr. Collins '.states, without hesitation, that steamers can ascend from the sea to

Chetah, a distance of 2600 miles, which great fact opens up Siberia to our Pacific commerce through the Amoor. This fact, hitherto unknown, and not even guessed at, presents a new field for commerce, the ultimate limits of which can hardly be grasped by the most comprehensive mind. Mongolia, Manchooria, Northern China, all the Tartaries, Thibet, and Siberia, with a population of 20,000,000 to 30,000,000, are approached by this river, and a new route to the Indies opened. The discovery of the north-west passage sinks into: utter nothingness in comparison with the utility and practicability of this route. One most astonishing fact is elicited, which is, that Irkoutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, can be approached within only about 300 miles of land carriage. Mr. Collins is the first foreigner that has ever descended the Amoor, the second American that ever crossed the Ural Mountains, and the first that has crossed the mountains dividing the waters of the Pacific from those of the Frozen Ocean. He speaks in the highest terms of the Russian officers and people upon his long journey, having been treated with kindness and hospitality. At Kyachta, where he was invited to a public dinner, the health of President Buchanan was given as a regular toast, which was drunk standing, with all honors. Mr. Buchanan is very popular in Russia, and his election was hailed with delight throughout the empire. As he was also our minister at St. Petersburg, and negotiated the last commercial treaty between the two countries, he is known to many personally. By way of Hakodadi, Japan, up through the sea of Japan to the Straits of Tartary, and into the mouth of the Amoor, the navigation presents no unusual difficulties. Steam is wanted at the.mouth of the Amoor to tow vessels to and from sea,fthe same as at the mouth of the Mississippi. Vessels .approaching the Amoor will stop at De Castries for a pilot, where they can get wood arid water, and the supercargo or captain can proceed by way of Keezey, making a small portage into the Amoor, and thus anticipate his vessel at the mouth of the river. That vast and valuable extent of country lying along the Amoor, and more than that, the navigation of that river, from the sea to the interior provinces of Siberia, through which alone she has an approach to the Pacific, is of itself sufficient argument for the acquisition by Russia. But aside, from this, the Amoor, forages in the hands of Tartars or the Chinese—who, like the dog in the manger, will neither use it themselves, nor let any other nation use it-—-justifies Russia now in its acquisition, as we were in the acquisition of the Mississippi by Jefferson —peaceably, if we could—forcibly, if we must. The whole of Amoor basin is as necessary to Russia in the development of that country, and to her quiet intercourse into the heart of Siberia, as the Mississippi valley was to us in 1803. It is not only most desirable to Russia, but equally so to progress and civilization : for with the possession of this river the Tartar power will be completly hemmed in and approachable on all sides. Since Major Collins's visit to Irkoutsk and the Amoor, a company, called the " Company of the Amoor," has been organised in St. Petersburg, and received the sanction of the Emperor, with a capital of four millions of francs, to be increased to twelve millions, for the purpose of " encouraging and developing the commercial and industrial activityof the valley ofthe Amoor; to open trade through the Pacific ports with foreign countries, to trade with the Indians, to build and maintain steamers and sailing vessels, establish factories, magazines, &c." This shows at once the waking up of Russia to the importance of the re-annexa-tion of the Amoor. j It must be remembered that Russia once held the Amoor, and only suspended her claims there in the face of great difficulties to be renewed at a more propitious season. This time has now arrived, and she is pushing on the task with vigour. And to what power but Russia does the world owe the successful beating back of the Great Moguls who devastated Europe for centuries with fire and sword ? Take the vast extent of country over which Russia now holds sway, and it is one of the most remarkable in history.: in control pre-eminent, in extent far surpassing that of Rome in her palmiest days. Russia alone has been able to control the Tartar race, and has whipped them into some degree of civilization, and from marauding hordes trained them to the plough and the loom. It is to Russia alone that civilization owes the fact that you can now travel from St Petersburgh to Kamschatka quite as secure as in any other portion of the globe, and needing, perhaps, less precaution than over the same extent of the territory on any other part of the earth's surface. After leaving the Amoor in the fall of 1857, Mr. Collins visited Japan, and Kamschatka, and the Sandwich Islands, and returned to Washington by way of St. Francisco, California.

A Singular Deposit Bank. —ln a-trial at Gloucester of two women for robbing a map who trusted himself in their company, it appeared that One of the accused had sewed £70 in bank notes, part of the plunder, in the "lining of a cloak; this valuable garment she pledged in London for two shillings, making the pawnbroker her unconscious banker. The cloak was subsequently redeemed by the woman, under the surveillance of a policeman; and the prosecutor recovered the £70. Miss Burdett Coutts has given £100 towards the fund for purchasing the late Hugh Miller's geological collection. Betting is immoral*; but how can the man who bets be worse than the one who is no better.