y.

Over the after cabin there was a cook-house, where dwelt a shabby and
unwholesome cuisinier. Between the wheels was a bridge, occupied by
the captain when starting or stopping the boat; the engines, of thirty
horse power, were below deck, under this bridge. The cabins, without
state rooms, occupied the whole width of the boat. Wide seats with
cushions extended around the cabins, and served as beds at night. Each
passenger carried his own bedding and was his own chambermaid. The
furniture consisted of a fixed table, two feet by ten, a dozen stools,
a picture of a saint, a mirror, and a boy, the latter article not
always at hand.

The cabins were unclean, and reminded me of the general condition of
transports during our late war. Can any philosopher explain why boats
in the service of government are nearly always dirty?

The personnel of the boat consisted of a captain, mate, engineer, two
pilots, and eight or ten men. The captain and mate were in uniform
when we left port, but within two hours they appeared in ordinary
suits of grey. The crew were deck hands, roustabouts, or firemen, by
turns, and when we took wood most of the male deck passengers were
required to assist. On American steamboats the after cabin is the
aristocratic one; on the Amoor the case is reversed. The steerage
passengers lived, moved, and had their being and baggage aft the
engine, while their betters were forward. This arrangement gave the
steerage the benefit of all cinders and smoke, unless the wind was
abeam or astern.

Steam navigation on the Amoor dates from 1854. In that year two wooden
boats, the Shilka and the Argoon, were constructed on the Shilka
river, preparatory to the grand expedition of General Mouravieff.
Their timber was cut in the forests of the Shilka, and their engines
were constructed at Petrovsky-Zavod. The Argoon was the first to
descend, leaving Shilikinsk on the 27th of May, 1854, and bringing the
Governor General and his staff. It was accompanied by fifty barges and
a great many rafts loaded with military forces to occupy the Amoor,
and with provisions for the Pacific fleet. The Shilka descended a few
months later. She was running in 1866, but the Argoon, the pioneer,
existed less than a decade. In 1866 there were twenty-two steamers on
the Amoor, all but four belonging to the government.

The government boats are engaged in transporting freight, supplies,
soldiers, and military stores generally, and carrying the