AMUR, am-or', river formed by the junc tion (about lat. N. and long. 121° E.) of the Shilka and the Argun, which both come from the southwest. From the junction the river flows first southeast and then northeast, and, after a total course of 3,060 miles, falls into the Sea of Okhotsk opposite the island of Sakhalin. It is very valuable for navigation, and carries a considerable fleet of steamers, but on account of the bar at its mouth goods are generally disembarked and carried overland to Alexandrovsk. In 1636 Russian adventurers made excursions to the lower Amur, and in 1666 built stations and a fort at Albazin. In 1685 both stations and the fort were taken by the Chinese, but were promptly retaken by the Russians, who in 1689 abandoned the whole territory of the Amur to the Chinese. In 1854 56 two military expeditions were conducted by Count Muravieff, who established the stations of Alexandrovsk and Nikolaevsk. In 1858 China agreed to the Treaty of Tientsin, by which the boundaries of Russia and China were defined. The left bank of the Amur and all the territory north of it became Russian; and below the confluence of the Ussuri both banks. In 1860, after the occupation of Pekin by the British and French, General Ignatieff secured the signature of Prince Kung to a treaty by which Russia acquired the broad and wide territory comprised between the river Amur and the mouth of the Turner', extending of latitude nearer the temperate regions, and running from the shore of the north Pacific eastward to the banks of the river Ussuri, a principal affluent of the Amur. In
September 1900 Russia took formal possession of the right bank of the river. This vast terri tory falls into two Russian provinces— the Maritime Province between the Ussuri and the sea, and the government of Amur north of the river. The latter has an area of 175,000 square miles. The country is richly timbered, and is admirably adapted for pasturage and agricul ture, though the climate is severe. Fur-bearing animals are still plentiful and the river abounds in fish. The capital is Khabarovka. Niko laevsk, once the only important place in these regions, is on the Amur, 26 miles from its mouth, where the river is 1% miles wide, and in places 15 feet deep; but the political centre tends southward to the more temperate Mari time Province (area, 730,000 square miles), near the southern end of which is situated the important harbor of Vladivostok (tRule of the East"), or Port May, which in 1872 was placed in telegraphic communication with Europe by the China submarine cable, and is now the cap ital of the Amur provinces. The island c Sakhalin (Saghalien), north of the Japc.a group, along a portion of the coast of Asia::: Russia, and formerly possessed partly by Rti sia and partly by Japan, is also a part of the Amur region in the wider sense.