The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

348 RUSSIA IN EUROPE.when the ice from the interior accumulates ou the bauks, carrying away hugemasses of rock, and often piling up the debris along the shore. The river isgenerally ice-bound for 191 days, from about October 23rd to May 2nd ;yet itabounds in fish, including one species, the navaga, akin to the cod, hitherto foundnowhere else. The sturgeon made its appearance in the Archangel waters for thefirsttime in 1865, thanks doubtless to the Catherine Canal, for some time connectingthe Kama-Volga and Dvina systems.Although a small stream compared with the Dvina, the Mezen is neverthelessequal to the Seine in the volume of its waters and the extent of its drainage:.It is even broader than the French river, being nearly three-quarters of amile wide above its sand-blocked estuary, which, like that of the Seine, is notedfor the abnormal character of its tides. The flow lasts generally four hours only,the ebb eight, but the former is so rapid that vessels moored in the roads oftenthreaten to drag their anchors.The Petchora, the greatest river of the eastern tundra, is in no respect inferiorto the Dvina, and even drains a wider area, viz. 162,000 square miles.It flows firstnorth along the foot of the western spurs of the Urals, at the outlet of every valleyreceiving fresh tributaries, amongst which is the Shchugor, rising in the snows ofMount Tell-Pos-Is, and famous for the falls in its upper valley, and for the so-called" Iron Gates," where it flows between rocks of a dazzling white colour, and cut intoenormous columns by vertical fissures. After receiving the Ussa, also from theUrals, the Petchora bends westwards along the depression stretching a littlesouth of the arctic circle from the Urals to the Gulf of Mezen ; it then turnsabruptly northwards at Ust-Tzilma, discharging into the Frozen Ocean througha delta about 120 miles long, where the channels wind in a vast network roundsands, islets, and sand-banks, which shift and change their form with everj^ thaw.A bar at the entrance prevents the access of vessels drawing 12 feet. Althoughthe delta is free of ice on an average for 127 days only, from May 25th toOctober 1st, yet a surprising traffic in timber, cereals, and peltry is carriedon in a river which is, moreover, obstructed by rapids in a part of its course. Thesparse Russian, Ziryanian, and Samoyed population is entirely centred in hamletsand small villages occurring at wide intervals alongs its banks.The domains ofthe various fishing associations occupy severally many thousand square miles inits basin and on the arctic islands, and the Russians associated in the whitewhale fishery set aside a tenth of their captures for St. Nicholas of Pustozersk toinsure the success of their undertaking.The "White Sea.The sea washing the shores of the province of Archangel penetrates far inlandthrough numerous bays, inlets, and even gulfs, narrowing at their entrancebetween lofty headlands, and generally shut off from the sea by shoals and islands,the remains of ancient lidi, like those of the Adriatic. In the case of the "WhiteSea the ancient shore is still represented by the island of Morkhovetz, besides