AMUR. A river of Asia, formed by the junc tion of the Shilka and Argun rivers, near the Russian village of Ust-Strielka, at the north end of the Khingan Mountains, lat. 53° 20' N. and long. 121° 25' E. (Map: Asia, N 4). From the point of junction of the two rivers the Amur flows at first east and then southeast along the northern boundary of Manchuria. At the east ern extremity of Manchuria it turns northward and near Fort Nicolayevsk, iu lat. 53° 20' N., it empties into the strait which separates the island of Saghalien from the mainland, near the point where that channel opens into the Sea of Okhotsk. including its headstrcam of .Argun, the .Amur has a total length of nearly 2S00 miles and its basin is estimated at about 750,000 square miles. The principal tributary of the Amur is the Sungari, which joins it on the right near the point at which the Amur begins its great bend toward the north. Another impor tant affluent from the right is the Ussuri. The chief affluents on the left are the Seya and the Bureya. The river is very wide in the lower part of its course, and there are many islands in it. The great station of the steamers that navigate the Amur and the Ussuri is Khabar ovsk (formerly called Khabarovka), which is connected by rail with Vladivostok. On the left bank of the Amur, near the parallel of 50°, Is Blagovyest•iensk, the capital of the Amur ter ritory: A short distance below this town, on the opposite bank, is Aigun. The Amur is nav igable for smaller vessels through its entire course, and steamers can ascend the Shilka be yond the town of Strietensk. The Amin- is open for navigation only for about six months in the year. The region through which it flows is partly covered with thick forests, and but few settlements are found on its banks.
As early as 1636, several Russian adven turers, attracted by rumors of the wealth of the regions to the southeast of Lake Baikal, made excursions into the Chinese territories on the Lower Amur by way of the Shilka River. In 1649 Khabaroff descended the Amur, subdued the native tribes, and erected a number of forts at the junction of its tributaries. In 1658,
tchinsk on the Shilka was founded, and about 1065 Albasin was erected. The Chinese, who had watched the Russian advance with great uneasiness, now took up arms, attacked Fort Alba in repeatedly, and in the peace of Neltehinsk (1689) succeeded in closing the Amur to the Russians, who for more than one hundred and fifty years made no conquests in Manchuria, and contented themselves with extending their in fluence through commerce, missionary work, and diplomacy. With the appointment of Count Nicholas Muravieff to the governorship of East Siberia, active operations recommenced. A line of forts was constructed on the Amur, the coast of the Gulf of Tartary, and the island of Sag halien. In four expeditions undertaken in 1S54 and subsequent years MuravielY established the authority of Russia over the Amur region, and some slight attempts were made at colonizing the country with Russian settlers. With the English and French marching upon Peking, China could not resist the Russian encroachments. The treaties of Aigun and Ticn-tsin concluded in 1858, and the supplementary treaty of Peking in 1860, in ceding Eastern Manchuria to the Russians, merely gave formal re•egnition to an accom plished fact. By these treaties Russia obtained possession of all the country between the Pacific and the Amur, the Ussuri and the Tiumen rivers down to the Korean frontier. In this manner the long-desired goal of Russian foreign policy, an outlet and an ice-free port on the Pacific, was attained. The new territory was divided into two regions, the Amur Territory and the Mari time Province. In 1861, Vladivostok (Mis tress of the East), was founded on the Gulf of Peter the Great, in the extreme southeast of Russian territory; strongly fortified, it became the chief military centre and arsenal of the Russians in the East, while its port was made the rendezvous for the Russian Asiatic fleet. Con sult: Schrenck, Reisen. and Porschungen fan A mnr Lande (St. Petersburg, 1858-92) ; Shirnkieviteh, "Reisen bei den Amur-Vfilkern," in pt. 74, Globus (Brunswick, 1898). See also SIBERIA; MANCHURIA.