Directory_and_Chronicle_1850 — Page 327

THE

CHINESE REPOSITORY.

VOL. XIX.-June, 1850.-No. 6.

ART. I. Notices of the Sagalien river, and the island of Tarakai

opposite its mouth.

LIKE all the large rivers in the Chinese empire, the Sagal'en is called by many names during its long course, and it is not easy to decide which of them should be adopted. The Russians call it the Amur after it passes out of their territories at Ft. Baklanova; the Chinese know it as the Heh-lung kiáng from that point till it joins the Songari, after which they call it the Kwantung to its mouth; and the Manchus name it the Sag lien úla, which we adopt, chiefly because it flows through their territories. The word Amur or Yamur is derived from the Ghiliaks, a tribe found between the river and the Hing in Mts., in whose language it signifies the Great river, or Great water; Ich-lung kiáng mes Black-Dragon river in Chinese, and Sagalien úla means Black river in Manchu, but why this term is applied at all does not appear.

This stream is among the great rivers of the world, and the sixth in point of size in Asia, the Yingtsz' kiáng, the Yellow, Oby, Lena, and Yenisei, alone excelling it in length. Its basin extends from the 109th to the 143d degrees of east longitude, and from the 42d to the 55th degrees of north latitude; its waters are drawn from an area of not less than 700,000 square miles, an extent of country nearly as large as Buenos Ayres, four times the size of France, seven times that of Prussia, and more than equal to all the states of the American Union south of the parallel of Lake Erie and east of the Mississippi river. This comparison of superficies is however the sole feature of resemblance, for in respect to population, productions, civilization, cli mate, and position, there is no similarity between them; and our know-

VOL. XIX. NO. VI.

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