KIRIN, ke-ren' (Chin. Ei-/in, lucky forest). The central one of the three provinces of Man chu•ia, bounded on the north by the Sungari River, on the east by the Usuri and the Russian Maritime Province, on the smith by Korea and the Province of Shine-king, and on the west by the Sungari. Area, 115,000 square miles (Map: China, G :3). it consists of two parts, a 'prairie' or level part lying within the loop of the Sungari, and a mountainous part. The chief mountain is the Shan-a-lin (otherwise known as the Oh'ang PM Shun or 'Ever-White Mountain') with peaks trom 8000 to 10,000 feet high, and covered with snow. In general the trend of the ranges in this mountainous part is from northeast to southwest, as in China proper. chief rivers are the Sungari, the Hurka, and the Usuri. The first of these is the most important. It rises on the northwest side of the Shan-a-lin, flows north by west. receives many tributaries, passes the city of Kirin, then west to about latitude 44° 30' N., where it enters Mongolia, and takes a no•th west direct ion,passes Petuna, where it receives the Nonni, thows east and finally northeast, tending to north until it reaches the Amur. The Usuri River, in latitude 44° N., longitude 131 ° E., re ceives numerous tributaries, and after a course of 500 miles also joins the Amur. The Hurka River, not far front the source of the Sungari, takes a northerly direction past Ninguta, receives two important tributaries from the west, and joins the Sungari at the city of San-sing (which lies on the south bank of the Sungari. east bank of
the Hurka, and southwest bank of the Kung-ho, which here joins the others). From Petuna east the country is a level plain, broken with insig nificant undulations, cultivated in the vicinity of the villages, hut elsewhere covered with a sea of waving tall grass.
The soil of the province is fertile; the chief products are pulse, millet, maize, barley. potatoes, and the poppy. Tigers abound in the mountain ous part, and black beers, wild boars, panthers, and polecats are numerous; eagles are also found, and the game includes pheasants, partridges, quails, and grouse. The cities of the province besides Kirin (q.v.), the capital, are Ashiho (population. 40,000), near which the new Man churian railway line passes; Petnna, on the Sungari (30.000): San-sing, already mentioned; Latin, 120 miles north of Kirin (15,000) : Nin guta (15,000), of little importance commercial ly; and Shwang-shing-pu, a walled town 45 miles east of Ashiho, full of inns, and exceedingly dirty. The province on the north is called Tsi tsi-har, or in Chinese Heh-lung-kiung, or 'Black Dragon River.'