WERST, WURST, or Verst, a Russian measure equal to 3500 English feet. A degree of a great circle of the earth contains about 104 wersts and a half.
WERTURIAN or URALIAN Mountains, a famous chain of mountains forming part of the boundary of Asia. It begins distinctly (for it may be traced interruptedly farther south) near the town of Kungur, in the government of Kasan, in latitude 57° 20', runs north, and ends opposite to the Waygatz strait, and rises again in the isle of Nova Zemlja. The Russians also call this range Samennoi Poias, or, the girdle of the world; from a supposition that it encircled the universe. These were the Riphaei montes: Pars mundi damnata a natura rerum, et densa merfa caligine; of which only the southern part was known to the ancients, and that so little as to give rise to numberless fables. Beyond these were placed the happy Hyperborei, a fiction most beautifully related by Pomponius Mela. Moderns have not been behind-hand in exaggerating several circumstances relative to these noted hills. Ybrand Ides, who crossed them in his embassy to China, asserts that they are 5000 toises or fathoms high; others, that they are covered with eternal snow. The last may be true in their more northern parts; but in the usual passages over them, they are free from it three or four months.
The heights of part of this chain have been taken by M. l'Abbé d'Auteruche: who, with many assurances of his accuracy, says, that the height of the mountain Kyria near Solikamskaia, in latitude 60°, does not exceed 471 toises from the level of the sea, or 286 from the ground on which it stands. But, according to M. Gmelin, the mountain Pauda is much higher, being 752 toises above the sea. From Peterburgh to this chain is a vast plain, mixed with certain elevations or platforms, like islands in the midst of an ocean. The eastern side descends gradually to a great distance into the wooded and morassy Siberia, which forms an immense
Wesleyan, menſe inclined plane to the Icy ſea. This is evident from all the great rivers taking their riſe on that ſide, ſome at the amazing diſtance of latitude 46°; and, after a courſe of about 27 degrees, falling into the Frozen ocean, in latitude 73° 30'. The Yaik alone, which riſes near the ſouthern part of the eaſtern ſide, takes a ſouthern direction, and drops into the Caſpian ſea. The Dwina, the Peczora, and a few other rivers in European Ruſſia, ſhew the inclined plane of that part. All of them run to the northern ſea; but their courſe is comparatively ſhort. Another inclination directs the Dnieper and the Don into the Euxine, and the vaſt Wolga into the Caſpian ſea.