The dwellings of the principal tea merchants are situated at Troitskosavsk, whose population numbers quite 7,000 souls; but it is at Kiakhta,[9] on the frontier, that the tea-leaves are manipulated. The two towns are linked by an excellent road, which passes between desolate-looking sand-hills, sparsely covered with wretched fir-trees. The blue outline of the mountains of Mongolia closes in the horizon to the south. The houses of the wealthier inhabitants are painted white, as is the church, the interior of which is extremely rich with massive silver candelabras and a gorgeous iconostase. Beyond a group of _isbas_, where the workmen dwell, and half hidden by the cupolas of the church, stands the vast but very low one-storied building of the Tea Warehouse. Such is Kiakhta, through which passes annually into the Russian Empire from 40,000,000 to 60,000,000 pounds of tea, costing, before the Custom duties are paid, between £1,500,000 to £2,000,000. The following are the figures obtained from the tea registers during the last five years, kindly supplied to me by the authorities at Kiakhta. ─────┬───────────────┬───────────── Year.│Weight of Tea. │Value of Tea. ─────┼───────────────┼───────────── 1892│42,596,500 lbs.│ £1,672,143 1893│43,123,250 〃 │ 1,659,134 1894│51,086,900 〃 │ 1,932,318 1895│52,439,500 〃 │ 2,043,086 1896│55,369,200 〃 │ 2,128,402 ─────┴───────────────┴───────────── The tea begins to pour into Kiakhta in winter from the month of November to February. In December it is not at all an uncommon thing to see as many as 5,000 boxes delivered daily. The total number of boxes of tea which passed the Customs in 1896 was 412,869.