In the distance was a background of blue mountains glowing in sunshine or dark in shadow, and varying in outline as we moved slowly along.

The river was ruffled only by the ripples of the current or the motion of our boat through the water.

Just a year earlier I descended the Saint Lawrence from Lake Ontario to Quebec.

I saw nothing on the great Canadian river that equaled the scenery of my first day's voyage on the Amoor.
Soon after leaving Nicolayevsk we met several loads of hay floating with the current to a market at the town.

On the meadows along the river the grass is luxuriant, and hay requires only the labor of cutting and curing.