[Footnote 31: The River Til, or Tula, according to the
geography of De Guignes, (tom. i. part ii. p. lviii. and
352,) is a small, though grateful, stream of the desert,
that falls into the Orhon, Selinga, &c. See Bell, Journey
from Petersburg to Pekin, (vol. ii. p. 124;) yet his own
description of the Keat, down which he sailed into the Oby,
represents the name and attributes of the black river, (p.
139.)
Note: M. Klaproth, (Tableaux Historiques de l'Asie, p. 274)
supposes this river to be an eastern affluent of the Volga,
the Kama, which, from the color of its waters, might be
called black. M. Abel Remusat (Recherchea sur les Langues
Tartares, vol. i. p. 320) and M. St. Martin (vol. ix. p. 373
consider it the Volga, which is called Atel or Etel by all
the Turkish tribes. It is called Attilas by Menander, and
Ettilia by the monk Ruysbreek (1253.) See Klaproth, Tabl.
Hist. p. 247. This geography is much more clear and simple
than that adopted by Gibbon from De Guignes, or suggested
from Bell. - M.]