su EUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



the peat beds, and springs occur here and there which never freeze even in winter. 

 Wherever the land is not too moist, and well exposed, to the sun, southern plants 

 snring up and blossom, and the southern slopes of the Zimniya Gorî, or " Winter 

 Mountains," a low range from 260 to 330 feet high, skirting the east side of the 

 White Sea, are covered with blue aconites and. scarlet poppies, "nature's last 

 smile." The roots of trees occurring in various parts of the tundra show that forest 

 vegetation formerl}^ extended much farther north : large pine stems are found in 

 places where even the dwarf willow has now ceased to grow. 



The Ural Mountains. 



The Ural range, partly lying between Archangel and Siberia, forms geolo- 

 gically a continuous system, consisting throughout of the same crystalline rocks, 

 covered on either side with the same regularly disposed strata, and contrasting 

 witli the monotonous Russian and Siberian plains. But the " Girdle of the Globe" 

 (Zemnoï Poijas), as this range was formerly called by the Hussians, possesses no 

 such geographical unity, being divided into several sections broken by deep gaps, 

 and even by arms of the sea, though still retaining its character as a true water- 

 parting. The Southern Urals, which most abound in mineral wealth, are separated 

 from the northern portions by profound depressions, where the range seems almost 

 to disappear altogether. The northern section again, subdivided into the Vogul, 

 Ostyak, and Samoyed Urals, is separated by low passes from the Kara, or Pae- 

 Khoi Mountains, which branch off in the north-west at right angles from the main 

 rans?-e. Waigach Island is also a fragment of the Urals, which are further 

 continued, north-westwards by the Novaya Zemlya group, thus forming a total 

 length of over 1,800 miles, without reckoning the windings of the main ridge. 



The Northern Urals begin about the sixty-third parallel, north of the point 

 where rise the Petchora and some of the main head- streams of the Ob. Between 

 the source of the Petchora and the northern mountains there is no chain properly 

 so called, but only unequal non-parallel masses, giving to the line of water-parting 

 an extremely irregular form. Amongst these lateral spurs is the famous Bolvano- 

 Is, or " Idol Mount," one of whose crests consists of several strangely shaped rocks 

 resembling gigantic statues. The highest of these, with an elevation of over 100 

 feet, was formerly a highly venerated deitj^, and may possibly still have its votaries. 

 The range, beginning with the Tell-Pos-Is, or Nepubi-Nior (5,541 feet), soon 

 turns north-east, but throws off numerous western spurs, wooded at their base, but 

 whose granite crests are destitute of all vegetation except mosses and lichens. 

 Their ravines, facing northwards, are filled with perpetual snows, from a distance 

 presenting the appearance of glaciers, though the highest summits are at times 

 entirely free of snow. But although lying partly within the arctic circle, the 

 Urals have no true glaciers, the development of which is prevented by the lack of 

 sufficient moisture, and by their low mean elevation, which scarcely exceeds 

 3,000 feet. No traces even of ancient glaciers were detected until Polakov 

 recently ascertained the existence of numerous moraines, and of striae evidently 



