Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/63

Rh Peking (1860). By these conventions the Russian Government acquired the right of organising at its own expense a regular transmission of both light and heavy mails between Kiakhta, Peking, and Tien-tsin, The Mongols contract to carry the post as far as Kalgan, the Chinese, the rest of the way. We have opened post-offices at four places: Urga, Kalgan, Peking, and Tien-tsin. At each of these a Russian official is stationed, who superintends the post-office, and attends to the regular despatch of the post. The light mails leave Kiakhta and Tien-tsin three times a month: the heavy mails only once a month. The latter are carried on camels escorted by two Cossacks from Kiakhta, while the former are accompanied only by Mongols, and are carried on horses. They are usually taken from Kiakhta to Peking in two weeks; while the heavy mails take from twenty to twenty-four days. The cost to our Government of maintaining the post through Mongolia is about 17,000 rubles (2,400l.); the receipts at all the four offices amounting altogether to 3,000 rubles (about 430l.).

The Chinese Government has also undertaken to transport, from Kiakhta to Peking and back, every three months, at its own cost, for the convenience of our clerical and diplomatic Missions at Peking, a heavy post not exceeding 26 cwts. in weight each time.