TSI-TSI-HAR, ehe'clieffilie. The largest, the most northerly, and the most thinly popu lated of the three provinces of Manchuria (q.v.), known to the Chinese as Hei-lung-kiang. it is generally mountainous, covered with forests, and abounds in both large and small game—tigers, bears, leopards, deer of various kinds, antelopes, wild boars, wolves, foxes, badgers, wild cats, sables, and other fur-bearing animals, and hunt ing and trapping are extensively carried on. in the southwest are great prairies occupied by the Mongols, who maintain large herds of cattle, horses, etc., upon them. The climate is severe, the mercury falling in winter to 40° F. below zero, and lower. In summer it sometimes rises to 90° and 95°. Agriculture is chiefly confined to the river valleys, where are produced pulse, maize, millet, tobacco, wheat, sesamum, and the poppy. The drainage is to the north through the Sun gari. Gold is found in the northwest, north, and east, and is mined at Moho. Much soda is pro duced and exported to China. The province is
crossed by the Trans-Manchurian branch of the Russian Trans-Baikal Railway, which connects at Harbin with the Russian Railway that runs south-southwest to Port Arthur and Dalny. The population, estimated at 2,000,000, consists of Manchus, Korchin Mongols, Solons, Yakuts from Siberia, 6600 families of whom settled on the banks of the Nonni in 1687, and Chinese, chiefly from the northern provinces. The government is military, but there are two civil officials in as many localities where the population is largely Chinese. Besides the Bannermen a force of 7000 foreign-drilled Chinese troops is maintained. Tsi tsi-har has long been a penal colony; and there is much bri[randage. The capital. Tsi-tsi-har, on the Nonni. was built in 1692 in order to overawe the neighboring tribes. It is a few miles north of the Trans-Manchurian Railway, and is a dirty poorly built city with a population of between 30,000 and 40,000.