Note 69 — Chapter XXXV

The extent and importance of the numerous rivers which traverse this vast empire cannot but strike every one with astonishment. Most of them naturally take their course from west to east, from the mountains towards the sea; but there is one important exception to this rule. The river Amoor, or Sagalin, takes its rise from numerous branches along the Kinkow mountains, not far from Kiachta and Maimaichis, the two places at which trade is carried on with Russia, and after taking a tortuous course to the northward, it receives a very large branch, called the Schilka, which rises within the Russian frontier in the Baikal mountains, and at length, after traversing the whole of Mantchouria, empties itself into the sea of Okotsk, not far from the Russian frontier. The caravans from Kiachta have to cross most of the numerous branches of this river on their way to Pekin.