I seemed carried back to my days of war, and had vivid recollections of being stormed at with shot and shell.
From Ohotsk to the mouth of the Amoor is a direct course of about four hundred miles.

A light draught steamer would have made short work of it, but we drew too much water to enter the northern passage.

So we were forced to sail through La Perouse Straits and up the Gulf of Tartary to De Castries Bay.

The voyage was more than twelve hundred miles in length, and had several turnings.

It was like going from New York to Philadelphia through Harrisburg, or from Paris to London through Brussels and Edinboro'.
A good wind came to our relief and took us rapidly through La Perouse straits.