XC1¥ 
Uracrian 
CHAIN. 
Its HEIGHT. 
U RA DL Gerke. 8 Cri A Ton: 
make it the fubftitute for the Cow. Thefe are in fa& the Hottentcts of the 
north. 
To the eaft of the Peczora commences the continent of 
AU IGEE EAs 
Which has moft natural and ftrongly-marked limits. Here appear the Wercho~ 
turian mountains, or famous Urallian chain, which begins diftinétly (for it may be 
traced interruptedly farther fouth) near the town of Kungur, in the government of 
Kafan, in lat. 57.20, runs north, and ends oppofite to the Vaygatz ftreight, and 
rifes again in the ifle of Nova Zemlja. The Ruffians alfo call this range Semennos 
Poias, or the Girdle of the World, from a {uppofition that it encircled the univerfe. 
Thefe were the Riphei montes: Pars mundi damnata a natura rerum, et denfa merfa 
Caligine *, of which only the fouthern part was known to*the antients, and that fo 
little as to give rife to numberlefs fables. Beyond thefe were placed the happy 
Hyperborei, a fition moft beautifully related by Pomponius Mela +. Moderns have 
not been behind-hand in exaggerating feveral circumftances relative to thefe noted 
hills. Ybrand Ides, who croffed them in his embafly to China, afferts that they are 
five thoufand toifes or fathoms high: others, that they are covered with eternal fnow. 
The laft may be true in their more northern parts; but in the ufual paflages over 
them, they are free from it three or four months. 
The heights of part of this chain have been taken by 1.7’ Abbi d’ Auteroche; who, 
with many aflurances of his accuracy, fays, that the height of the mountain Kyrza, 
near Solikam/kaia, in lat. 60, does not exceed four hundred and feventy-one toifes 
from the level of the fea, or two hundred and eighty-fix from the ground on which. 
it ftands t. But, according to AZ. Gmelin, the mountain Pauda is much higher, be- 
ing feven hundred and fifty-two toifes above the fea ||. From Peterfburg to this chain 
* Plinii Hift. Nat. lib, iv. € 12. 
+ In Afatico littore primi Hyperborei, fuper aquilonem Ripheofque montes, fub ipfo fiderum cardine 
jacent ; ubi fol non quotidié, ut nobis, fed primtim verno AequinoStio exortus, autumnali demum occidit ; 
et ideo fex menfibus dies, & totidem aliis nox ufque continua eft. Terra augufta, aprica, per fe fertilis. 
Cultores juftiffimi, et diutits quam ulli mortalium & beatits vivunt. Quippe fefto femper otio lxti, non 
bella novére, non jurgia ; facris operati, maximé Apollinis; quorum’ primitias Delon mififfe, initio per 
virgines fuas, deinde per populos fubinde tradentes ulterioribus ; moremque eum diu, & donec vitio 
gentium temeratus eft, fervaffe referuntur. Habitant lucos fylvafque ; et ubi eos vivendi fatietas magis 
quam tedium cepit, hilares, redimiti fertis, femet ipfi in pelagus ex certa rupe pracipiti dant. Id eis 
funus eximium eft. Lib.iii. c. 5. 
1 Voyage de la Siberie, ii. 605. {| Preface to Flor, Sibir. i, 54s 
3 is. 
