Note 15 — Chapter L · THE USSURI AND SUNGACHA.

The Khanka is completely exposed to the winds on the south, which blow during a great part of the year, rushing in through an open gap in the Sikhota-Alin chain. Thus there is found on the surface of its water a regular swell, which is carried from the south to the north, and which delineates with nicety the circular outline of the shore. This is the theory of M. Réclus, and he usually writes very carefully and correctly; but I ought perhaps to add that in the chart given me by the captain this regularity of outline of the north shore is not so observable as in the map of M. Réclus.

For five months of the year ice covers the lake to the thickness of a yard. The north-east and north-west shores are level and wooded. The south-west shore is also wooded, but not so the shores in the south and south-east. Swampy tracts exist at the mouths of the eight rivulets which enter the lake; the Toor-balenkhe flowing in from the north-west, and the largest, the Lifu, from the south. About ten villages and post-stations are dispersed along the shores, and roads lead away to the Manchu towns Ninguta, Hun-chun, and Furden.