The Goldee boat was so much like a Gilyak one that I could see no
difference. There was no opportunity to examine it closely, as we
passed at a distance of two or three hundred feet.

Besides their boats of wood the Goldees make canoes of birch bark,
quite broad in the middle and coming to a point at both ends. In
general appearance these canoes resemble those of the Penobscot and
Canadian Indians. The native sits in the middle of his canoe and
propels himself with a double-bladed oar, which he dips into the water
with regular alternations from one side to the other. The canoes are
flat bottomed and very easy to overturn. A canoe is designed to carry
but one man, though two can be taken in an emergency. When a native
sitting in one of them spears a fish he moves only his arm and keeps
his body motionless. At the Russian village of Gorin there was an
Ispravnik who had charge of a district containing nineteen villages
with about fifteen hundred inhabitants. At Gorin the river is two or
three miles wide, and makes a graceful bend. We landed near a pile of
ash logs awaiting shipment to Nicolayevsk. The Ispravnik was kind
enough to give me the model of a Goldee canoe about eighteen inches
long and complete in all particulars. It was made by one Anaka
Katonovitch, chief of an ancient Goldee family, and authorized by the
emperor of China to wear the uniform of a mandarin. The canoe was
neatly formed, and reflected favorably upon the skill of its designer.
I boxed it carefully and sent it to Nicolayevsk for shipment to
America.

The Ispravnik controlled the district between Habarofka and Sofyesk on
both banks of the river, his power extending over native and Russian
alike. He said that this part of the Amoor valley was very fertile,
the yield of wheat and rye being fifteen times the seed. The principal