Transbaikalia or Zabaikalia is a vast stretch of land lying to the north-west of Manchuria, bounded on the east by River Argun from China and on the west by Lake irkutsk and Irkutsk Mountains from the Irkutsk region. Its most important cities are Chita (capital), Stretinsk, Nerchinsk, Kiakhta and Borzia. The region around borzia for a hundred miles is composed of undulating hillocks inhabited by a species of large (cat-size) marmots or tarabagans (Arctomys bobac) whose skin is much sought after for the manufacture of imitation sable. The Russians and Buriats find the flesh of these animals whole-some, and often bunt them for the meat and the fat which they use for greasing shoes. It is among the trappers and eaters of tarabagans that the early case of bubonic plague are usually reported.