FAREWELL TO NORWAY 137 



River to its sources ; and here began the ascent of the 

 Ural Mountains by the Pass of Kjaila (Kjola). In their 

 crossing of the chain they tried to skirt along the foot of 

 the mountains, chmbing as little as possible. . . . 



" They noticed one marked contrast between the 

 mountains in the northern and those in the southern part 

 of the Ural chain. In the south the snow melts quickly 

 in the lower regions and remains lying on the tops. 

 Here (in the northern Ural), on the contrary, the moun- 

 tain-tops are free from snow before the sun's rays pene- 

 trate into the valleys and melt it there. In some valleys, 

 especially those closed by mountains to the south, and 

 more exposed to north winds, the snow lies the whole 

 summer. When they had got across the Ural Moun- 

 tains they first followed the course of the River Lemva, 

 then crossed it, and now followed a whole system of small 

 rivers, for which even the natives have no names. At 

 last, on May 4th, the expedition reached the River Ussa, 

 on the banks of which lay the hut of the Syriane Nikit- 

 sa." This was " the one inhabited spot in this enormous 

 tract of country," and here they stopped two weeks to 

 rest the reindeer and get provender for them. " The 

 country lying between the sources of the Voikara and 

 the Ussa is wooded in every direction." " Between the 

 River Ussa and the River Vorkuta, and even beyond that, 

 Trontheim and his company travelled through quite lux- 

 uriant wood. In the middle of May, as the caravan ap- 

 proached the tundra region, the wood got thinner and 



