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JOURNEY FROM ASTRAKHAN TO

Port, Brigadier Akhmatof, ordered one of the Admiralty bargesto conduct me and my family to that place, where we pafled thenight in a very convenient ferry-houfe, built for the accom-modation of travellers.

On the 27th in the morning, we began our journey on theroad to Kiflar. Two verfts from the principal current, wetravelled in a retrograde diredlion, and pafled over a floatingbridge conftructed of folid timber, which had lately been rebuilt.We then crofled the adjacent arm Solanka, called in the Tartarlanguage Baltfhahtfha, and in the Kalmuk Khonkoll. If" ifluesfrom the main river, oppofite the higher part of Aftrakhan, andagain falls into it below that city. At the diftance of fevenverfts from Aftrakhan, we pafled another branch of water whichthe Tartars call Tinak. It runs fomewhat higher than theSolanka, and proceeds from the Volga in a Weftern dire&ioninto the uneven fteppe, forming fome ftanding pools betweenthe eminences. At the part where the Kiflar road leads overthis branch of water, there is a military poft of the Kozaks,called Tinakikoi; and on the oppofite fide is an eminence,called the Mayafhnoi Bugor, or hillock for fignals. Near theTinak, and another branch of water proceeding from an higherpart of the Volga, immediately below the Sharenoi Bugor, theTartars have planted melon gardens in a few fertile fpots. Theyare watered from the abovementioned branches, by peculiarmachines.

Near thefe branches we pafled another which the Tartars callMalgara; and afrer, travelling twenty-two verfts and a halffrom Aftrakhan, we reached the arm of water called Kofkotfhu,

which