The intervals between meals were variously filled.  I watched the land, talked with Borasdine, read, wrote, smoked, and contemplated the steward, but never imagined him a disguised angel.  I looked at the steerage passengers and the crew, and think their faces are pretty well fixed in memory.  Had I only been able to converse in Russian I should have found much more enjoyment.  As for the cook it is needless to say that I never penetrated the mysteries of his realm.  Little games of cards wore played daily by all save myself; I used to look on occasionally but never learned the games.

One of the Russian games at cards is called poker, and is not much unlike that seductive amusement so familiar to the United States.  Whence it came I could not ascertain, but it was probably taken there by some enterprising American.  Some years ago a western actor who was able to play Hamlet, Richelieu, Richard III., Claude Melnotte, and draw-poker, made his way to Australia, where he delighted the natives with his dramatic genius.  But though he drew crowded houses his cash box was empty, as the treasurer stole the most of the receipts.  He did not discharge him as there was little prospect of finding a better man in that country; but he taught him draw-poker, borrowed five dollars to start the game, and then every morning won from the treasurer the money taken at the door on the previous night.

As we approached the Ousuree there was a superior magnificence in the forest.  The trees on the southern bank grew to an enormous size in comparison, with those lower down the river.  Naturalists say that within a short distance in this region may be found all the trees peculiar to the Amoor.  Some of them are three or four feet in diameter and very tall and straight.  The elm and larch attain the greatest size, while the ash and oak are but little inferior.  The cork-tree is two feet through, and the maackia—­a species of oak with a brown, firm wood—­grows to the diameter of a foot or more.

In summer the foliage is so dense that the sun’s rays hardly penetrate, and there is a thick ‘chapparel’ that makes locomotion difficult.  Just below the Ousuree the settlers had removed the under growth over a small space and left the trees appearing taller than ever.  In a great deal of travel I have never seen a finer forest than on this part of the Amoor.  I do not remember anything on the lower Mississippi that could surpass it.  Tigers and leopards abound in these forests, and bears are more numerous than agreeable.  Occasionally one of these animals dines upon a Goldee, but the custom is not in favor with the natives.  It is considered remarkable that the Bengal tiger, belonging properly to a region nearer the equator, should range so far north.  On some of its excursions it reaches 53 deg.  North Latitude, and feeds upon reindeer and sables.  The valley of the Amoor is the only place in the world outside of a menagerie where all these animals are found together.  The tropical ones go farther north and the Arctic ones farther south than elsewhere.