Nicolayevsk is a free port of entry, and there are no duties upon
merchandise anywhere in Siberia east of Lake Baikal. Since the opening
of commerce, in 1865, the number of ships arriving annually varies
from six or eight to nearly forty. In 1866 there were twenty-three
vessels on government, and fifteen on private account. The government
vessels brought flour, salt, lead, iron, machinery, telegraph
material, army and navy equipments, and a thousand and one articles
included under the head of 'government stores.' The private ones,
(three of them American,) brought miscellaneous cargoes for the
mercantile community. There were no wrecks in that year, or at any
rate, none up to the time of my departure.

At the Amoor I first began to hear those stories of peculation that
greet every traveler in Russia. According to my informants there were
many deficiencies in official departments, and very often losses were
ascribed to 'leakage,' 'breakage,' and damage of different kinds. "Did
you ever hear," said a gentleman to me, "of rats devouring
window-glass, or of anchors and boiler iron blowing away in the wind?"
However startling such phenomena, he declared they had been known at
Nicolayevsk and elsewhere in the empire. I think if all the truth were
revealed we might learn of equally strange occurrences in America
during the late war.

The Russians have explored very thoroughly the coast of Manjouria in
search of good harbors. Below De Castries the first of importance is
Barracouta Bay, in Latitude 49°. The government made a settlement
there in 1853, but subsequently abandoned it for Olga Bay, six degrees
further south. Vladivostok, or Dominion of the East, was occupied in
1857, and a naval station commenced. A few years later, Posyet was
founded near the head of the Corean peninsula, and is now growing