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Amur River

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AMUR (known also as the Sakhalin-ula ), a river of eastern Asia, formed by the confluence of the Argun and the Shilka, at Ust-Stryelka, in 53° 19' N. lat. and 120° 30' E. long. Both these rivers come from the south-west: the Argun, or Kerulen as it is called above Lake Kulun (Dalai-nor), through which it flows about half way between its source and Ust-Stryelka, rises in 49° N. lat. and 109° E. long.; the Shilka is formed by the union of the Onon and the Ingoda, both of which have their sources a little farther north-east than the Kerulen (Argun). The Amur proper flows at first in a south-easterly direction for about Boo m., as far as long. 132' E., separating Manchuria from the Amur government; it then turns to the north-east, cuts its way through the Little Khingan mountains in a gorge 2000 ft. wide and 140 m. long, and after a total course of over 1700 m. discharges into the Sea of Okhotsk, opposite to the island of Sakhalin. It is estimated to drain an area of 772,000 sq. m. Its principal tributaries from the south are the Sungari, which the Chinese consider to be the true head-river of the Amur, and the Usuri; from the north it receives the Oldoi, Zeya, Bureya, Kur, Gorin and Amgun. As the mouth is choked with sandbanks, goods are disembarked at Mariinsk and carried by train (9 m.) to Alexandrovsk at the head of the Gulf of Tartary. Navigation on the river is open from April to early in November.

See T. W. Atkinson, Travels in the Region of the Amoor (1860); Collins, Exploration of the Amoor (ed. 1864) and Voyage down the Amoor (1866); Andree, Das Amurgebiet (ed. 1876); and GrumGrshimaylo, Account of the Amur (Russian, 1894).