In corroboration (_quantum valeat_) of my suggestion that there must have been two Sarais near the Volga, Professor Bruun of Odessa points to the fact that Fra Mauro’s map presents _two_ cities of Sarai on the Akhtuba; only the Sarai of Janibeg is with him no longer _New_ Sarai, but _Great_ Sarai. The use of the latter name suggests the possibility that in the _Saracanco_ of Pegolotti the latter half of the name may be the Mongol _Kúnḳ_ “Great.” (See _Pavet de Courteille_, p. 439.) Professor Bruun also draws attention to the impossibility of Ibn Batuta’s travelling from Astrakhan to Tzarev in three days, an argument which had already occurred to me and been inserted above. [The Empire of Kipchak founded after the Mongol Conquest of 1224, included also parts of Siberia and Khwarizm; it survived nominally until 1502.—H. C.] (_Four Years of Archæological Researches among the Ruins of Sarai_ [in Russian] by M. Gregorieff [who appears to have also published a pamphlet specially on the site, but this has not been available]; _Historisch-geographische Darstellung des Stromsystems der Wolga, von Ferd. Heinr. Müller_, Berlin, 1839, 568–577; _Ibn. Bat._ II. 447; _Not. et Extraits_, XIII. i. 286; _Pallas, Voyages; Cathay_, 231, etc.; _Erdmann, Numi Asiatici_, pp. 362 _seqq._; _Arabs._ I. p. 381.) NOTE 2.—BOLGHAR, our author’s Bolgara, was the capital of the region sometimes called Great Bulgaria, by Abulfeda _Inner Bulgaria_, and stood a few miles from the left bank of the Volga, in latitude about 54° 54′, and 90 miles below Kazan. The old Arab writers regarded it as nearly the limit of the habitable world, and told wonders of the cold, the brief summer nights, and the fossil ivory that was found in its vicinity. This was exported, and with peltry, wax, honey, hazel-nuts, and Russia leather, formed the staple articles of trade. The last item derived from Bolghar the name which it still bears all over Asia. (See Bk. II. ch. xvi., and Note.) Bolghar seems to have been the northern limit of Arab travel, and was visited by the curious (by Ibn Batuta among others) in order to witness the phenomena of the short summer night, as tourists now visit Hammerfest to witness its entire absence. Russian chroniclers speak of an earlier capital of the Bulgarian kingdom, Brakhimof, near the mouth of the Kama, destroyed by Andrew, Grand Duke of Rostof and Susdal, about 1160; and this may have been the city referred to in the earlier Arabic accounts. The fullest of these is by Ibn Fozlán, who accompanied an embassy from the Court of Baghdad to Bolghar, in A.D. 921. The King and people had about this time been converted to Islam, having previously, as it would seem, professed Christianity. Nevertheless, a Mahomedan writer of the 14th century says the people had then long renounced Islam for the worship of the Cross. (_Not. et Extr._ XIII. i. 270.)