On Certain Points Connected with the Epidemic of Plague in the Province of Astrakhan, Russia, in the Winter of 1878-79

a sharp turn to the east, and somewhat alters its character, forming below this point a larger number of collateral channels on its left bank. A few miles below Tzaritzin, near the German colony of Sarepta, the river leaves the range of hills which, north of this, have accompanied its right bank, and no longer presents in so marked a degree that striking difference between the right and the left bank, which has always been noticed by travellers in the upper part of its course. The physical features of the district generally are uniform. On either side the river is a level, treeless plain, covered in the summer with scattered