“Never think of it,” said my friend.

“And why?”

“Because you will make the peasants your enemies.  The news would spread that you had killed a pigeon, and every peasant would dislike you.”

“For what reason?”

“The pigeon or dove is held sacred throughout Russia.  He is the living symbol of the Holy Spirit in the faith of the Eastern church, and he brought the olive branch to The Ark when the flood had ceased.  No Russian would harm one of these birds, and for you to do so would show disrespect to the religion of the country.”

I went on shore again, but without a gun.

Every day we saw rafts moving with the stream or tied along the shore.  They were of logs cut on the upper Amoor, and firmly fastened with poles and withes.  An emigrant piles his wagon and household goods on a raft, and makes a pen at one side to hold his cattle.  Two or three families, with as many wagons and a dozen or twenty animals, were frequently on one raft.  A pile of earth was the fire place, and there was generally a tent or shelter of some kind.  Cattle were fed with hay carried on board, or were turned ashore at night to graze.

[Illustration:  EMIGRANTS ON THE AMOOR.]

Some rafts were entirely laden with cattle on their way to market or for government use at Nicolayevsk.  This is the most economical mode of transportation, as the cattle feed themselves on shore at night, and the rafts float with the current by day.  A great deal of heavy freight has been carried down the Amoor in this way, and losses are of rare occurrence.  The system is quite analogous to the flat-boat navigation of the Mississippi before steamboats were established.  We met a few Russian boats floating or propelled by oars, one of them having a crew of six Cossacks and making all haste in descending.  We supposed it contained the mail due at Blagoveshchensk when we left.  The government has not enough steamers to perform its service regularly, and frequently uses row boats.  The last mail at Blagoveshchensk before my arrival came in a rowboat in fifteen days from Stratensk.

Ascending the river we made slow progress even without a barge.  Our machinery was out of order and we only carried half steam.  We ran only by day, and unfortunately the nights had a majority of the time.  We frequently took wood in the middle of the day, and on such occasions lost from one to three hours.  Our average progress was about sixty miles a day.  I could not help contrasting this with journeys I have made on the Mississippi at the rate of two hundred miles in twenty-four hours.  A government boat has no occasion to hurry like a private one, and the pilot’s imperfect knowledge of the Amoor operates against rapidity.  In time I presume the Siberian boats will increase their speed.