At Nicolayevsk it is half a mile from the anchorage to the shore.

A sand spit projects from the lower end of the town and furnishes a site for government workshops and foundries.

Above this tongue of land the water is shallow and allows only light draft and flat bottomed boats to come to the piers.

All sea-going vessels remain, in midstream, where they are discharged by lighters.

There is deeper water both above and below the town, and I was told that a change of site had been meditated.