The Japanese have settlements in the Southern portion, engaging in trade with the natives and catching and curing fish.

The natives are of Tunguze origin, like those of the lower Amoor, and subsist mainly upon fish.

The Russians have settlements at Cape Dui, where there is excellent coal in veins eighteen feet thick and quite near the coast.

Russia desired the entire island, but the Japanese positively refuse to negotiate.

Some years ago the Siberian authorities established a colony near the Southern extremity, but its existence was brief.
At three o'clock in the afternoon of September eleventh we entered the mouth of the Amoor, the great river of Asiatic Russia.