Above Mariensk the Amoor valley is often ten or twenty miles wide, enclosing whole labyrinths of islands, some of great extent.  These islands are generally well out of water and not liable to overflow.  Very few have the temporary appearance of the islands of the lower Mississippi.  Here and there were small islands of slight elevation and covered with cottonwoods, precisely like those growing between Memphis and Cairo.

[Illustration:  GILYAK WOMAN.]

The banks of this part of the Amoor do not wash like the alluvial lands along the Mississippi and Missouri, but are more like the shores of the Ohio.  They are generally covered with grass or bushes down to the edge of the water.  There are no shifting sand-bars to perplex the pilot, but the channel remains with little change from year to year.  I saw very little drift wood and heard no mention of snags.  The general features of the scenery were much like those below Mihalofski.  The numerous islands and the labyrinth of channels often permit boats to pass each other without their captains knowing it.  One day we saw a faint line of smoke across an island three or four miles wide; watching it closely I found it was in motion and evidently came from a descending steamboat.  On another occasion we missed in these channels a boat our captain was desirous of hailing.  Once while General Monravieff was ascending the river he was passed by a courier who was bringing him important despatches.

[Illustration:  NIGHT SCENE—­GROUP OF PEASANTS]

The pilot steers with a chart of the river before him, and relies partly upon his experience and partly upon the delineated route.  Sometimes channels used at high water are not navigable when the river is low, and some are favorable for descent but not for ascent.  In general the pilotage is far more facile than on the Mississippi, and accidents are not frequent.

The peasants always came to the bank where we stopped, no matter what the hour.  At one place where we took wood at night there was a picturesque group of twenty-five or thirty gathered around a fire; men and women talking, laughing, smoking, and watching the crew at work.  The light, of the fire poured full upon a few figures and brought them into strong relief, while others were half hidden in shadow.  Of the men some wore coats of sheepskin, others Cossack coats of grey cloth; some had caps of faded cloth, and others Tartar caps of black sheepskin.  Red beards, white beards, black beards, and smooth faces were played upon by the dancing flames.  The women, were in hoopless dresses, and held shawls over their heads in place of bonnets.