New Britain herald., 1924-02-13
THE AMUR IS BOAT /
 PATH FROM RUSSIA
River Great Waterway of Empire
 to East

Washington, D. C., Feb. 1S.-The
 Amur region of Siberia. reported to
 have set up an independent white
 government since the death of the
 Russian leader Nikolai Lenine, is the
 subject of the following bulletin from
 the Washington, D. C., headquarters
 Of the National Geographic society:
 ''The Amur province. which takes
 its name from the Amur river, one
 of the great streams of the world.
 says the bulletin. Furnished an inn
 portant and adventurous chapter in
 the great epic Of Russia's advance
 eastward to the pacific--an advance ranking, in its influence on world his tory. along side the push of other Flu ropeans to the western world.
 Furs Were the Eastern Magnet
 The search for more furs was the particular sort of trade that led Rus sian adventurers into Asia, and even tually took the banner of St. Andrew there is a reversal of the popular idea that trade follows the flag Adven- turers began feeling their way into Siberia from the Erals during the cen tury after America was discovered. Pushing their way eastward was not easy in the western half of Siberia because the drainage was all across their route and many broad rivers were encountered. But once past Lake Baikal they soon reached the headwaters of the Amur, and found nature an ally instead of an enemy, For the seventeen hundred or more aF rt, dominantly east and west; and once on its current the pioneers found it possible to reach the far distant Pa cihc in a matter of weeks. The Amur then, became the great highway for Russian migration in the centuries to follow.
 ''For a time after the early explor- ation of the Amur, a treaty with China and wars in Europe brought Russian activity in far eastern Siberia to standstill; but from about the middle Of the nineteenth century on- ward development was rapid, and in that development the Amur river long. played a role like that of our Miss issippi in the development Of our first west Large. well appointed steamboats were placed in service on the stream, and travellers could go in comfort for half the year where short while before only the crudest facilities were available. Little settle 1 ments and n few important towns sprang up on the Russian side Of the ! river largely in the Amur province l of which the stream marks the south ] ern boundary for some 75O miles
 Where China Touches Russia 1
 Across the Amur to the south lies | China, or rather Manchuria, which, before the World War, was being ra. pidly Russianized. still. the river there is truly ali international line, and this was proved. if by nothing elsc. by the extensive smuggling that . went on across it.
 "'rhe Amur province is in the same latitude as Newfotg and has climate that in some ways is compar. able 10 the climate Of that far north aru American land. The winters are severe. the temperature sometimes alling to t0 degrees below zero Fahr- snheit. The summers, however, are hot and at times the thermometer 'llmbs to above the 100 mark. The country has extensive forcst-covered iills which extend in many places town to the Amur. Other parts Of he rivers banks. however. are plains originally covered with thiekets which nave now been cleared away. The ioil has proved rich and well adapted Q grain growing and to sustaining e ferdant growth Of grass.