Walking on shore I was nearly overturned by a small hog running between my legs.  The brute, with a dozen of his companions, had pretty much his own way at Petrovsky, and after this introduction I was careful about my steps.  These hogs are modelled something like blockade runners:  with great length, narrow beam, and light draft.  They are capable of high speed, and would make excellent time if pursued by a bull-dog or pursuing a swill-bucket.

[Illustration:  RECEPTION AT PETROVSKY.]

A peasant told us there were wild geese in a pond near by, and as the boat remained an hour or more to take wood, Borasdine and I improvised a hunting excursion.  It proved in every sense a wild-goose chase, as the birds flew away before we were in shooting distance.  Not wishing to return empty-handed we purchased two geese a few hundred yards from the village, and assumed an air of great dignity as we approached the boat.  We subsequently ascertained that the same geese were offered to the steward for half the price we paid.

Just above Petrovsky we passed the steamer Amoor, which left Nicolayevsk a week before us with three barges in tow.  With such a heavy load her progress was very slow.  Barges on the Amoor river are generally built of iron, and nearly as large as the steamers.  They are not towed alongside as on the Mississippi, but astern.  The rope from the steamer to the first barge is about two hundred feet long, and the barges follow each other at similar distances.  Looking at this steamer struggling against the current and impeded by the barges, brought to mind Pope’s needless Alexandrine: 

“That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.”

Each barge has a crew, subordinate, of course, to the captain of the tow-boat.  This crew steers the barge in accordance with the course of the steamer, looks after its welfare, and watches over the freight on board.  In case it fastens on a sand bar the crew remains with it, and sometimes has the pleasure of wintering there.  The barge is decked like a ship, and has two or three hatchways for receiving and discharging freight.  Over each hatchway is a derrick that appears at a distance not unlike a mast.

Above Petrovsky the banks generally retain their level character on the Russian side.  Cliffs and hills frequently extend to the water on the Chinese shore, most of the land being covered with forests of foliferous trees.  Some of the mountains are furrowed along their sides as regularly as if turned with a gigantic plow.  Near the villages of Ettoo and Dyrki the cliffs are precipitous and several hundred feet high; at their base the water is deep and the current very strong.  On the north shore the plain is generally free from tall trees, but has a dense growth of grass and bushes.  Sand-banks are frequent, and the islands are large and numerous.

This region is much frequented during the fishing season, and the huts of the natives, their canoes and drying scaffolds are quite numerous.  There are but few fixed villages, the country not being desirable for permanent habitation.  Near one village there was a gently sloping hillside about a mile square with a forest of oak so scattered that it had a close resemblance to an American apple-orchard.