FOOD-PLANTS OF MANCHURIA. 
173 
from Thibet, sable and martin skins from Eastern 
Siberia, and tiger skins obtained from the hunters of 
Mongolia, are here collected in prodigious quantities. 
In the flourishing fertile inland plains of Man- 
churia rice grows in abundance, but in the province 
of Liao-tung the land is poor and the country not 
so AveU supplied with the means of irrigation. In 
consequence of the more imperfect cultivation of 
the land only the coarser kinds of cereals and the 
common food-plants are produced. Besides barley, 
a kind of millet is cultivated which often grows 
to an enormous size, and the seeds of whicli are 
oTound into a sort of meal which, when boiled, 
O 
forms excellent porridge. Liao-tung is famous for 
its tobacco, and large quantities of it are planted 
in the fields higher up the river. 
The greater part of Manchuria now belongs to 
the Chinese; and, as the Kussians tried by the 
destruction of the Polish language to obliterate 
every sign of Poland, so have the Chinese substituted 
their own language for that of the Manchu, the 
Chinese written characters being in daily use. The 
