The province of KIRIN, or Girin, comprises the country north-east of Shingking, as far as the Amur and Usuri, which bound it on the north and east, while Corea and Shingking lie on the south-east (better separated by the Chang-peh shan than any political confine) and Mongolia on the west. All signs of the line of palisades have disappeared (save at the Passes) in the entire _trajet_ between the Songari and Shan-hai kwan. The region is mountainous, except in the link of that river after the Nonni joins it till the Usuri comes in, measuring about one-fourth of the whole. This extensive region is thinly inhabited by Manchus settled in garrisons along the bottoms of the rivers, by Goldies, Mangoons, Ghiliaks, and tribes having affinity with them, who subsist principally by hunting and fishing, and acknowledge their fealty by a tribute of peltry, but who have no officers of government placed over them. Du Halde calls them _Kíching Tatse_, _Yupí Tatse_, and other names, which seem, indeed, to have been their ancient designations. The _Yu-pí Tahtsí_, or ‘Fish-skin Tartars,’[102] are said to inhabit the extensive valley of the Usuri, and do not allow the subjects of the Emperor to live among them. In winter they nestle together in kraals like the Bushmen, and subsist upon the products of their summer’s fishing, having cut down fuel enough to last them till warm weather. Shut out, as they have been during the past, from all elevating influences, these people are likely to be ere long amalgamated and lost, as well among Russian and other settlers coming in from the north, as amid the Chinese immigrants who occupy their land in the south. The entire population of this province cannot be reckoned, from present information, as high as three millions, the greater part of which live along the Songari valley.
~TOWNS AND PRODUCTIONS OF KIRIN PROVINCE.~
Kirin is divided into three ruling _ting_ departments or commanderies, viz., Kirin ula, or the garrison of Kirin, Petuné or Pedné, and Changchun ting. Kirin, the largest of the three, is subdivided into eight garrison districts. The town, called _Chuen Chwang_, or ‘Navy Yard,’ in Chinese, is finely situated on the Songari, in lat. 43° 45′ N., and long. 127° 25′ E., at the foot of encircling hills, where the river is a thousand feet wide. The streets are narrow and irregular, the shops low and small, and much ground in the city is unoccupied. Two great streets cross each other at right angles, one of them running far into the river on the west supported by piles. The highways are paved with wooden blocks, and adorned with flowers, gold fish, and squares; its population is about 50,000.