VERNAL JOURNEY TO ASTRAKHAN.

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and remarks, I intend to publifh at my return to that city, inthe month of Auguft. I now haftened with Mr. Geifslerto the fteppe beyond the Volga, that I might obtain exacl:drawings of the rare vernal plants. I propofed to give anaccount of the mofl remarkable plants I might obferve during ajourney peculiarly devoted to botany, and in which two younggentlemen, Mr. Dokufhaef, teacher of Natural Hiftory in theNormal Academy at Aftrakhan, and the ftudent of pharmacy,Mr. Swenfon, both eager of inftru&ion, voluntarily accom-panied me.

My ftay at Aftrakhan was protracted by various circum-ftances tili the 51h of May. During that time I collectedbeautiful vernal plants, had drawings made of them, and pro-fecuted various ufeful inquiries. This day at noon I difpatchedmy light equipage by water, and went myfelf in a fmall boat,at three o'clock, up the Volga, with a fair fouth-eaft wind. Ipafled the convent of Bolda on the little river of that name,which forms an ifle near its fource ; and continued my route infight of the Kafatfhei Bugor *.

Behind Aftrakhan we pafled the convent of Pokrofska, andproceeded with a fair wind up the Bolda. On leaving Tfher-pakha, which belongs to Mr. Beketof, fometimes with theafliftance of oars, and fometimes with fails, we fteered thegreateft part of the time towards the S. E. and E. S. E. throughwhat are called the Bufurmanka. Thefe are canals, in fome partscovered with rufhes, and in others confined within dry banks:

* Bugor, in the Ruffian language, properly fignifies a hillock; but in the lowregions round Aftrakhan and the Cafpian Sea, this term is likewife applied to alldry iflands, or barren trafts of land, which projeci above water.

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