I rose early in the morning to look at the mouth of the Songaree.  Under a cloudy moon I could distinguish little beyond the outline of the land and the long low water line where the Amoor and Songaree sweep at right angles from their respective valleys.  Even though it was not daylight I could distinguish the line of separation, or union, between the waters of the two streams, just as one can observe it where the Missouri and Mississippi unite above Saint Louis.  I would have given much to see this place in full daylight, but the fates willed it otherwise.

This river is destined at some time to play an important part in Russian and Chinese diplomacy.  At present it is entirely controlled by China, but it appears on all the late maps of Eastern Siberia with such minuteness as to indicate that the Russians expect to obtain it before long.  Formerly the Chinese claimed the Songaree as the real Amoor, and based their argument on the fact that it follows the general course of the united stream and carried a volume of water as large as the other.  They have now abandoned this claim, which the Russians are entirely willing to concede.  Once the fact established that the Songaree is the real Amoor, the Russians would turn to the treaty which gives them “all the land north of the Amoor.”  Their next step would be to occupy the best part of Manjouria, which would be theirs by the treaty.

By far the larger portion of Manjouria is drained by the Songaree and its tributaries.  The sources of this river are in the Shanalin mountains, that separate Corea from Manjouria, and are ten or twelve thousand feet high.  They resemble the Sierra Nevadas in having a lake twelve miles in circumference as high in air as Lake Tahoe.  The affluents of the Songaree run through a plateau in some places densely wooded while in others it has wide belts of prairie and marshy ground.  A large part of the valley consists of low, fertile lands, through which the river winds with very few impediments to navigation.

Very little is known concerning the valley, but it is said to be pretty well peopled and to produce abundantly.  M. De la Bruniere when traveling to the country of the Gilyaks in 1845, crossed this valley, and found a dense population along the river, but a smaller one farther inland.  The principal cities are Kirin and Sansin on the main stream, and Sit-si-gar on the Nonni, one of its tributaries.  The Songaree is navigable to Kirin, about thirteen hundred versts from the Amoor, and it is thought the Nonni can be ascended to Sit-si-gar.  The three cities have each a population of about a hundred thousand.

According to the treaty of 1860 Russian merchants with proper passports may enter Chinese territory, but no more than two hundred can congregate in one locality.  Russian merchants have been to all the cities in Manjouria, but the difficulties of travel are not small.  The Chinese authorities are jealous of foreigners, and restrict their movements as much as possible.