10 NOVEMBER 1855, Page 10

IrIISSIA IN THE NORTH PACIFIC.

41rle .Bury, 29th October l855. Sin—There is a point relating to the last news from the North Pacific which I think will interest you, and to which it seems important to draw at- tention. It is stated that an English frigate has visited the mouth of the Amoor, and that, contrary to all expectation, she found there neither forts nor ships, but discovered that a bar at the mouth of the river wasinmassa- hle for men-of-war. Now it is quite a mistake to speak of this as a disco- very ; for it has been repeatedly stated that-there were only from eight to ten feet of water on the bar at the known mouth of the river ; and that to pass it, the Russian ships of war would have to unship all their guns and stores. Blut the Amcor, which is a far larger river than the Danube, when it ap- proaches the coast takes a curious bend to the Northward, much in the same way that that river does; and it is most probable that, like the Danube, it forces its way to the sea.by more than one channel. It instated by Mr. Rill, in his work on Siberia, that the Russians, who had been for centuries jea- louely excluded from this tract of country by the Chinese, have within tee last four or five years discovered that some very important river, which, at the time of his visit to Okotsk, they believed to be the Amoor, has an. outlet into the Sea of Okotsk, considerably to the Northward of the previously ituown mouth of the Amoor.

Is it not probable that the forts, which by the way the Russians are said to have deserted as untenable, are to be songht for at this newly-discovered • and, it may be, deeper estuary, where they would be nearer to Okotsk as iwell as to,the Siberian frontier, and.at the same time less likely to stimulate -the already awakened jealousy of the Japanese Government? If it is permissible to form a conjecture with respect to what has become of Admiral Paniutin and his squadron, I should say that the.Admiral.has not enough of the Paul Jones about him to attempt an escape to the South- award, and to make a dash for the Australian seas, in the hope of capturing some of our gold-ships, and then carrying his booty safely to Rio or to some other neutral port ; but that more probably he has been content to follow Artesian precedent, and has concealed or destroyed his ships, at no great dis- tance from De Castries Bay, where he was sighted by Commodore Elliot, and luis,made hie way, either by land or in his boats, to Okotelt, or to. some forti- fied poet on the Amoor.

I am, Sir, yours obediently,

THE Amnon CLV ".THE Sang AND THE • COSSAM"