 Forests in the East provided wood and game, the steppe to the South offered ample pasture.The Argun river served as a Sino-Russian border since the 1689 treaty of Nerchinsk but was hardly policed in a meaningful way.While the Russians erected Cossack posts ("ostrogi") in the Transbaikal region, the Qing dynasty was for a long time not interested in development of their side of the border.