'A Journey from Bengal to England, through the Northern part of India, Kashmire, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia, by the Caspian-Sea. By George Forster. In the Civil Service of the Honourable the East-India Company in Two Volumes. Vol. II.' [‎267] (280/314)

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FORSTER’S TRAVELS. 267
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vogorod, latitude 57, longitude eaft 51, and after ikirting nume
rous cities and mercantile towns, falls into the Cafpian fea, forty
miles below Aftracan. In this courfe, it receives many rivers and
leffer ftreams, which fpreading to the eaftward, form a navigable
communication throughout that wide fpace of country, lying be
tween Siberia and the Dnieper.
By the Occa which receives the river Mofca and joins the Vol
ga, at the city of Nijnio Novogorod, large boats pafs from Aftracan
to the old capital; and by a canal which unites the Volga with the
Mfta, a river ultimately flowing into the Ladoga lake, the fource of
the Neva, 'an inland navigation is completely opened between the
Cafpian and the Baltic feas. From the level face of the country,
the current * of the Volga has little force, and will admit of boats
being warped againft it, at the rate of three miles an hour.f The
city of Aftracan is fuppofed to contain about eighty thoufand in
habitants. Exclufive of the Ruffians, there is a numerous colony
of Nagayan Tartars, (the ancient people of the country), many
Greeks, Armenians, and Circaffians, fome itineiant Perfians, and a
fmall fociety of Hindoos.
In the life of Timur Beg, tranflated from the Perfic by M.
Petit de la Croix, Aftracan is denominated Hadji Terkan, one
of the principal cities of the kingdom or Ivapchac, wnich Ti-
* It runs about one and a half, and two miles per hour.
f For a defeription of the manner in which thefe boats are worked, tee Han way »
and Bruce’s travels,