40 UST-ZYLMA 



was afterwards sold to M. Boulegan. Our windows 

 looked out across the street on to the Petchora, which we 

 calculated from two rough trigonometrical observations to 

 be a mile and a half wide. At Ust-Ussa, 200 miles 

 higher up, its width is said to be nearly a mile. A little 

 beyond the limits of the village at each end, the flat land 

 on the bank of the river ceases, and the forest comes up 

 to the edge of a cliff of sand, earth, and pebbles, varying 

 from 50 to 100 feet high. This bank drops nearly 

 perpendicularly on to the mud and pebbles on the edge 

 of the river. In some places the pebbly strand was bare 

 of snow, and we noticed pieces of granite, ironstone, and 

 limestone. Some of the latter was full of fossil shells, 

 and we found many pieces that looked like madrepore 

 and fossil coral. Soon after the high steep bank of the 

 river begins, the grand sweep which the Petchora makes 

 round the village ends, and the river stretches away 

 north-east for miles. The view from the top of the bank 

 looking up the wide white river is very fine. The high 

 banks, too steep in most places for the snow to rest upon, 

 and the dark pines on the top, form a striking contrast 

 to the pure white snow on the ice below, down which for 

 many versts may be seen the long winding line of dimi- 

 nutive fir-trees, marking the road, upon which the sledges 

 of the travelling peasants look like black spots in the 

 distance. It would, perhaps, be a very dififtcult- subject 

 to make a fine picture of, the effect on the eye being one 

 of simple vastness, causing one continually to exclaim, 

 " What a great river ! What a big country! " 



Most of the peasants of Ust-Zylma and the villages 

 near are Old Believers, people who retain a very curious 

 form of Christian superstition, closely allied to the Greek 

 Church. Castren calls them the " Raskolnicken " of 

 Ust-Zylma. They have not a good reputation amongst 



