Nertchinsk
a town of Siberia, in the Trans-Baikal Territory, on the Nertcha, a tributary of the Shika (a head-stream of the Amur), 875 miles E. of Irkutsk. The district of which it is the center yields silver, lead, zinc, tin, and gold; and the town is a trading center for Russians, Mongols, Turcomans, and Tunguses, exchanging tea, gunpowder, and furs. Pop. about 12,- 000. Another Nertchinsk, NERTCHIN- SKIY-ZAVOD, is 180 miles S. E., on a tributary of the Argun, and is also a great mining center. The silver mines and gold mines are largely worked by convict labor.