In their narrowest part the Straits are eight miles wide and frozen in winter.

The natives have a secure bridge of ice for at least four months of the year.

De Castries Bay is generally filled with ice and unsafe for vessels from October to March.
From the time we entered the Gulf of Tartary the water changed its color, growing steadily dirtier until we reached the Amoor.

At the mouth of the river I found it a weak tea complexion, like the Ohio at its middle stage, and was told that it varied through all the shades common to rivers according to its height and the circumstances of season.

I doubt if it ever assumes the hue of the Missouri or the Sacramento, though it is by no means impossible.
Passing Cape Pronge and looking up the river, a background of hills and mountains made a fine landscape with beautiful lights and shadows from the afternoon sun.