The largest of these islands is occupied as a warehouse and coal depot, and has an observatory and signal station visible from the Gulf.

The town is small, containing altogether less than fifty buildings.

It is a kind of ocean port to Nicolayevsk and the Amoor river, but the settlement was never a flourishing one.
Twelve miles from the landing is the end of Lake Keezee, which opens into the Amoor a hundred and fifty miles from its mouth.

It was formerly the custom to send couriers by way of Lake Keezee and the Amoor to Nicolayevsk to notify consigners and officials of the arrival of ships.

Now the telegraph is in operation and supercedes the courier.
In 1855 an English fleet visited De Castries in pursuit of some Russian vessels known to have ascended the Gulf.