Note 2 — Chapter XLIII · THE MANCHURIAN FRONTIER.

This part of the Amur was erected into a penal colony by the Chinese Government soon after the evacuation of Albazin by the Russians in 1680. Above and below Aigun are 25 or 30 clusters of Manchu dwellings, some of the villages having from 10 to 50 or even 100 houses. In other cases the houses stand solitary, like the Cossack picket-posts I afterwards passed on the Ussuri; and I presume they serve the Chinese for the same purpose in watching the frontier. A noticeable feature about these pickets is that, if there be only a single habitation, there is in the corner of the garden a small building like a sentry-box, which is a temple containing an idol or picture, and where worship is offered.