AMUR PROVINCE, a part of the Far Eastern Area of the Russian S.F.S.R. Area 236,785sq.km. Pop. (1926) (urban 75,588). Its boundaries are, on the south, the Amur river, on the west and north-west Zei Province, on the east and north-east Nikolaievsk Province and Khaborovsk Province. It includes the broad fertile plain which stretches from the junc tion of the rivers Zeya and Amur at Blagovyeschensk to the Bureya or Little Khingan mountains 250m. below. The river here is broad and slow-flowing; at Blagovyeschensk, 1,200m. from its mouth, its elevation is less than 400ft. The climate is milder than that of the Lena basin though it has severe winters, the principal drawback being that the maximum rainfall is in July and August, too late to be of the best service to crops, though oats, wheat, buckwheat, barley and potatoes are successfully grown. The average temperature at Blagovyeschensk is 17°F. in January and 70° F. in July. Above Blagovyeschensk the river valley is narrow and there is little land available for cultivation. The mountain slopes are thickly forested and yield furs and timber, while the valley of the Zeya is noted for its gold mines. There are also deposits of iron-ore, coal, antimony and fluorspar. Horses, cattle, pigs, sheep and camels are reared. The Amur, Zeya and Bureya rivers furnish boat communication in summer and sledge in winter, but the province has developed markedly since the construction of the trans-Siberian railway through it, with its branch to Blagovyeschensk, which is an important trading and culture centre. The region was known to the Russians in the 17th century, and began to be settled by them in 1847. In 1858 China ceded to Russia the whole left bank of the Amur, and the right below the Ussuri confluence, and in 1860 the whole territory between the Ussuri and the Eastern sea.