WERTURIAN or UBALIAN Mountains, a famous chain of mountains forming part of the boundary of Asia. It begins difficultly (for it may be traced uninterruptedly farther south) near the town of Kungur, in the government of Kafan, in latitude 57° 25'; runs north, and ends opposite to the Waygatz strait, and rises again in the isle of Nova Zemla. The Ruffians also call this range Semenoi 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 dena morfa caliginis*, of which only the southern part was known to the ancients, and that to little as Plinii lib. iv. 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, affirms 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'Auterche: who, with many assurances of his accuracy, says, that the height of the mountain Kyria near Solikamskain, 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 morally Siberia, which forms an immense Wesley

Worturian, men's 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 Yark 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, flew the inclined plane of that part. All of them run to the northern sea; but their courses comparatively short. Another inclination directs the Dnieper and the Don into the Euxine, and the vast Volga into the Caspian sea.