340 
THE ARCTIC URAL AND THE TIMAN RIDGE. 
even a much more extended range. From the prevalence of Orthoceratites, Pro- 
duct^ and other fossils, as well as from carboniferous matter in their rocks, M. Baer 
has suggested that the large islands of Nova Zemlia, stretching out so far north- 
wards into the Arctic Ocean, are in truth also a prolongation of the Ural and its 
dependencies 1 * * * . A reference to a general map of Northern Asia might lead any one 
to believe, that Nova Zemlia is in fact simply a continuation of the chief or central 
mass of these mountains. 
An eastern limb, radiating to the north-north-east from 65° north latitude, 
passes into the Obdorsk mountains and the great promontory which separates 
the gulf of the Obe from that of Kara. First explored by Sujeff under the direc- 
tions of Pallas, the correct geographical position and altitude of these mountains 
were only determined by the enterprising geographer Adolphe Erman, who fixed 
their direction to be 35° east of north, and their loftiest summit to be 5286 feet 
high. Lowering gradually as it trends to the south-west, this Obdorsk ridge unites 
with the Ural in 65°. (See General Map, PI. V.) 
Viewing then the Obdorsk mountains as a great north-eastern embranchment, 
and the line of Vaigatz and Nova Zemlia as marking the extension of the central 
chain, we might geographically, almost consider a newly discovered line of eleva- 
tion on the north-west, as a third range of the Northern Ural. 
This western chain is one which has been made known by the recent labours 
of our colleague Count A. V. Keyserling and his associate Lieutenant Krusenstern, 
and which rising near the main Ural or middle chain in latitude 62°, trends 
in a north-north-westerly direction for the space of about 500 English miles, and 
exposing all the edges and succession of its rocks on the east side of the gulf of 
Tcheskai, finally disappears in the headland of Kanin-nos near the extremity of 
our Map. This range, the chief part of which is called the Timan, is however, 
strictly speaking, separated from the Ural by a trough of Jurassic deposits, and 
traversing in its northern part a region occupied by Samoyedes, extends beyond the 
limits of the growth of forests in these parallels of longitude. It was, indeed, 
wholly unknown to geologists and scarcely known to geographers, except through 
old works of the sixteenth century 8 , till the close of the summer of 1843, when its 
1 Bull. Scient. de l’Acad. de St. Petersbourg, tom. iii. No. 10. 
- Humboldt cites an old map engraved on wood in 1547 at Nuremberg, on which the courses of the 
Petchora (Peczora), Ussae and Sosva (Sossa) are approximately laid down, the chief ridge of the Ural 
is termed “ Montes dicti Cingulus terra:.” Asie Centrale, vol. i. p. 456. 
