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Candlesticks, knives, idols, and other articles were made of pure gold and sold by weight. Of course the goods were "of Russian manufacture." Before 1860 the importation of tea at Kiachta was about one million chests annually, and all of good quality and not including brick tea. The "brick tea" of Mongolia and Northern China is made from stalks, large leaves, and refuse matter generally.
One of his companions fell dead in General Mouravieff's parlor while giving his account of the exploration. We determined to be comfortable on the way to Irkutsk. We put our baggage in a telyaga with Maack's servant and took the tarantass to ourselves. The road was the same I traveled from Verkne Udinsk to Kiachta, crossing the Selenga at Selenginsk.
Art. 18. The Chinese postal institutions at Urga and Mongolian Kiachta remain in force on the old basis. Art. 19.
A mob very soon destroyed the dangerous innovation. The other Englishman, Mr. Grant, was the projector and manager of a Pony Express from Kiachta to Pekin. He forwarded telegrams between London and Shanghae merchants, any others who chose to employ him.
Thus in its first attempt to add to its possession of a land trade, via Kiachta and the Mongol steppe, a share in the sea trade with Canton, Russia experienced a rude and discouraging rebuff.
The entire settlement comprised two buildings, one a hotel, and the other a storehouse and stable. A large quantity of merchandise was piled in the open air, and awaited removal. It included tea from Kiachta, and vodki or native whiskey from Irkutsk. There are several distilleries in the Trans-Baikal province, but they are unable to meet the demand in the country east of the lake.
No lighthouse is more welcome to a mariner than is the view of this Russian town to a traveler who has suffered the hardships of a journey from Pekin. The week I remained at Kiachta was a time of festivity from beginning to end. I endeavored to write up my journal but was able to make little more than rough notes.
When I opened it I could not perceive it had changed at all in flavor. I have not been able to find its like in American tea stores. Previous to 1850 all trade at Kiachta was in barter, tea being exchanged for Russian goods. The Russian government prohibited the export of gold and silver money, and various subterfuges were adopted to evade the law.
I found the Kiachta route rougher than any part of the way from Chetah to Verkne Udinsk, and as the yemshick took us at a rattling pace we were pretty thoroughly shaken up. At the second station we had a dinner of stchee, or cabbage soup, with bread and the caviar of the Selenga. This caviar is of a golden color and made from the roe of a small fish that ascends from Lake Baikal.
The Chinese merchant at Kiachta purchases them at more than double that price, and sells them again at Pekin at a great advance, whence a farther profitable trade is made with some of them to Japan.
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