When I rose in the morning after leaving Habarofka the steward was ready with his usual pitcher of water and basin.  In Siberia they have a novel way of performing ablutions.  They rarely furnish a wash-bowl, but in place of it bring a large basin of brass or other metal.  If you wish to wash hands or face the basin is placed where you can lean over it.  A servant pours from a pitcher into your hands, and if you are skillful you catch enough water to moisten your face.  Frequently the peasants have a water-can attached to the wall of the house in some out-of-the-way locality.  The can has a valve in the bottom opened from below like a trapdoor in a roof.  By lifting a brass pin that projects from this valve one can fill his hands with water without the aid of a servant.

While I was arranging my toilet the steward pointed out of the cabin window and uttered the single word “Kitie”—­emphasizing the last syllable.  I looked where he directed and had my first view of the Chinese empire.

“Kitie” is the Russian name of China, and is identical with the Cathay of Marco Polo and other early travelers.  I could not see any difference between Kitie on one hand and Russia on the other; there were trees and bushes, grass and sand, just as on the opposite shore.  In the region immediately above the Ousuree there are no mountains visible from the river, but only the low banks on either hand covered with trees and bushes.  Here and there were open spaces appearing as if cleared for cultivation.  With occasional sand bars and low islands, and the banks frequently broken and shelving, the resemblance to the lower Mississippi was almost perfect.

Mr. Maack says of this region: 

“In the early part of the year when the yellow blossoms of the Lonicera chrysantha fill the air with their fragrance, when the syringas bloom and the Hylonecon bedecks large tracts with a bright golden hue, when corydales, violets, and pasque flowers are open, the forests near the Ousuree may bear comparison in variety of richness and coloring with the open woods of the prairie country.  Later in the year, the scarcity of flowers is compensated by the richness of the herbage, and after a shower of rain delicious perfumes are wafted towards us from the tops of the walnut and cork trees.”

A little past noon we touched at the Russian village of Petrovsky.  At this place the river was rapidly washing the banks, and I was told that during three years nearly four hundred feet in front of the village had been carried away.  The single row of houses forming the settlement stands with a narrow street between it and the edge of the bank.  The whole population, men, women, and children, turned out to meet us.  The day was cool and the men were generally in their sheepskin coats.  The women wore gowns of coarse cloth of different colors, and each had a shawl over her head.  Some wore coats of sheepskin like those of the men, and several were barefooted.  Two women walked into the river and stood with utter nonchalance where the water was fifteen inches deep.  I immersed my thermometer and found it indicated 51 deg.