treated. A house was assigned it, and watchmen were constantly on
duty. The whole town being of wood it is highly important that the
engine should act promptly in case of fire. The supply of hose was
ample for all emergencies.

Several heavy guns were shown me, which were hauled overland from the
Ural Mountains during the Crimean war and brought in boats down the
Amoor. The expense of transporting them must have been enormous, their
journey by roads to the head of the river being fully three thousand
miles.

I spent a morning with Mr. Chase in calling upon several foreign
merchants and their families. The most prominent of the merchants is
Mr. Ludorf, a German, who went there in 1856, and has transacted a
heavy business on the Amoor and in Japan and China. Mrs. Ludorf
followed her husband in 1858, and was the first foreign lady to enter
Nicolayevsk.

The most interesting topic to Mr. Chase and the ladies was that of
cooks. Within two weeks there had been much trouble with the _chefs de
cuisine_, and every housekeeper was in deep grief. Servants are the
universal discomfort from the banks of the Hudson to those of the
Amoor. Man to be happy must return to the primitive stages of society
before cooks and housemaids were invented.

The hills around Nicolayevsk are covered with forests of small pines.
Timber for house building purposes is rafted from points on the Amoor
where trees are larger. Formerly the town was in the midst of a
forest, but the vicinity is now pretty well cleared. Going back from
the river, the streets begin grandly, and promise a great deal they do