In 1850 and the three following years the mouth of the Amoor was examined and settlements founded, as already described.  The year 1854 is memorable for the first descent of the Amoor by a military expedition.  The outbreak of the Crimean war rendered it necessary to supply the Russian fleet in the Pacific.  The colonies on the Pacific needed provisions, and the Amoor offered the only feasible route to send them.  General Mouravieff made his preparations, and obtained the consent of his government to the important step.  He asked the permission of the Chinese, but those worthies were as dilatory as usual, and Mouravieff could not wait.  He left Shilikinsk on the 27th of May, escorted by a thousand soldiers with several guns, and carrying an ample supply of provisions for the Pacific fleet.

The Chinese made no actual opposition, but satisfied themselves with counting the boats that passed.  Mouravieff supplied the fleet at the mouth of the Amoor, and then returned by way of Ayan to Irkutsk.  The troops were left to garrison the fortified points on or near the sea.  In 1855 three more expeditions left Shilikinsk with soldiers and colonists.  General Mouravieff accompanied the first of these expeditions and went directly to Nicolayevsk.  The allied fleet attempted to enter the Amoor but could not succeed.  The general sent his compliments to the English Admiral and told him to come on if he could and he should be warmly received.  In 1856 a few Cossack posts were established along the river, and in the next year nearly three thousand Cossacks were sent there.  The Chinese made a formal protest against these movements, and there were fears of a hostile collision.  The reverses that China suffered from the English and French prevented war with Russia, and in 1858 Mouravieff concluded a treaty at Igoon by which the Russian claim to the country north of the Amoor and east of the Ousuree was acknowledged.  The Russians were thus firmly established, and the development of the country has progressed peacefully since that period.

As the Argoon from its mouth to Lake Kerolun forms the boundary between the empires I lost sight of China when we entered the Shilka.  As I shivered on the steamer’s bridge, my breath congealing on my beard, and the hills beyond the Amoor and Argoon white with the early snow of winter, I could not see why the Celestials call their land the ‘Central Flowery Kingdom.’

The Shilka has a current flowing four or five miles an hour.  The average speed of the Korsackoff in ascending was about four miles.  The river wound among mountains that descended to the water without intervening plateaus, and only on rare occasions were meadows visible.  The forests were pine and larch, with many birches.  The lower part of the Shilka has very little agricultural land, and the only settlements are the stations kept by a few Cossacks, who cut wood for the steamers and supply horses to the post and travelers in winter.