﻿Prof. Milne — Across Europe and Asia. 345 



small village called Esad, to take in wood. The houses are built 

 upon the side of a hill, but most of them occupy the first of a series 

 of terraces with which it is furrowed. Numbers of wooden stair- 

 ways join one portion of the settlement with the other. As the 

 river has as many shoals beneath the surface of its waters as there 

 are sandbanks which appear above it, two men are kept constantly 

 at the bow to sound. This they do with a straight rod marked with 

 alternate bands of black and white. Each sounding is called out. 

 When the captain hears less than 3^ feet proclaimed, the signal to 

 stop is given, and, if it is not too late, the vessel is run backwards and 

 a new course is tried. Early next morning we ran into a small 

 steamer and smashed its bows in. After this, many hours were 

 spent in finding our way between sandbanks, often grounding with 

 a shake and shock which on first experience was startling. From, 

 the style of navigation, it may be inferred that it is impossible to 

 learn or place the courses of the river, which are ever being shifted 

 by the silting up of channels and opening of others. 



About midday, as we neared Kazan, we could see a few low hills 

 away in the distance upon the north side of the river. On the south 

 side the scarp, which had hitherto been red in colour, was now 

 yellowish-white, and, instead of being earthy-looking, appeared 

 more compact. Further on, these yellow beds were seen to underlie 

 the red. Opposite to Kazan, a strip of low flat country marked the 

 entrance of the Eiver Swjaga, one of the feeders of the Volga. It 

 flows from the south, and is very noticeable from the position it holds 

 to the river to which it is tributary. Measured in a straight line, it 

 is more than 150 miles long, and during the whole of this distance 

 it flows parallel to, and only a few miles distant from the Volga, 

 which it feeds — but, strange to say, in an entirely opposite direction. 

 Whilst the Volga flows south, the Swjaga flows north. At more 

 than 100 miles above their confluence, the two rivers come so close 

 together that they are indicated upon the map as flowing through the 

 same town of Simbirsk. Although rivers of this sort are exceptional, 

 they give us hints of the difficulties which explorers may meet with 

 in unknown countries when working out their topographical details. 



After passing the flat opening, we again had the hard whitish 

 cliffs upon the south, the red colour appearing at last to be entirely 

 lost. By disintegrating agencies acting along the lines of strati- 

 fication, horizontal ledges have been left protruding. Although these 

 are not very well defined, they are yet sufficient to form a foothold 

 for small trees and bushes, which now form dark lines along the face 

 of the cliff". The water of the river here was apparently the same 

 as it had been at Nijni Novgorod, so charged with sediment as to be 

 of a dirty-yellowish colour. 



Next morning I awoke to find that during the night we had broken 

 down, and were quietly lying alongside a hulk at a small station 

 called Cheestopol, at the enti'ance of the River Kama. As we were 

 detained here until evening in making repairs, I had a ramble 

 amongst the woods near the shore. Elm, oak, and birch were the 

 common trees ; I did not see any spruces or pines. Butterflies and 



