Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/71

vicinity that these nations are in reality subject to the latter prince.

On the river Petchora, of which mention has been made in the itinerary, is situated the city and fortress of Papin, or Papinovgorod; its inhabitants are called Papini. Beyond this river are some very lofty mountains stretching down to its banks, whose summits, from their continual exposure to the winds, are almost entirely destitute of grass or any other vegetation. Although these mountains are differently named in different places, they are commonly called the "Girdle of the Earth". In these mountains, the birds called gyr falcons make their nests, of which I shall speak below, when I come to the description of the prince's hunting. Cedar trees also grow there, in the neighbourhood of which are found very black sables. In the dominions of the Prince of Moscow there are no mountains seen but those which probably were regarded by the ancients as the Rhiphæan or Hyperborean mountains;^[1] and as from the severity of the perpetual snow and ice they are very difficult to pass, they are supposed to constitute the unknown province of Engroneland. Vasiley Ivanovich, grand-duke of Muscovy, at one time sent two of his governors, named Simeon Feodorovich Kurbski (so called from his paternal estate, but sprung from the race of Jaroslav), and the Knes Peter Uschatoi, through Permia and Petchora, to explore the districts and subdue the nations beyond these mountains. Kurbski was still alive at the time that I was at Moscow, and told me, when I inquired about this expedition, that it took him seventeen days to ascend the mountain, and that after all he could not pass the summit, which, in the language of the country is called Stolp, meaning a column. This mountain extends to the ocean, as far as the mouths of the rivers Dwina and Petchora.

And let this suffice for the itinerary.

1. ↑ The Oural mountains.