Volume 1

Travels in Siberia: including excursions northwards, down the Obi, to the Polar Circle, and southwards to the Chinese frontier / By Adolph Erman. Translated from the German, by William Desborough Cooley.

  • Erman, Adolph, 1806-1877.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Travels in Siberia: including excursions northwards, down the Obi, to the Polar Circle, and southwards to the Chinese frontier / By Adolph Erman. Translated from the German, by William Desborough Cooley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/552 (page 31)
    CIIUDLEIGH. places this piece of water is ten fathoms deep, hut in general it is much shallower. Near Chudleigh, four and twenty miles beyond Neinal, the road again meets the shores, at the bottom of a bay encircled by steep cliffs. These consist of thick, regularly arranged beds of a yellowish limestone, containing sea shells in abundance. Below the cliffs are hillocks of debris, which afford an easy access to the strand. From this shoot up tall, slender fir trees, between which the hillocks were still covered witli thick masses of snow. As the bay opens to the north, the interior of it is completely screened from the sun by the high cliffs. Wide cracks, made by the frost, gape in lines parallel with the edge of the precipice. Large masses fall every year, and great caution is necessary in approaching the treacherous brink. The limestone rock has here the appearance of a great promontory; for on the east it is bounded by a deep ravine cut by a rapid stream, which falls into the bay. On the right bank of this stream, and on the high ground, stands the castle of Chudleigh, built by and named after one of a body of emigrants from Scotland, some of whose descendants still possess estates round Yeva. The character of the country continues unchanged to Narva, which stands on the steep limestone hills on both sides of the river Narva, which is here both broad and deep; the current also is strong, but the ledsfe of rock over which the stream falls a height of o o eighteen feet is two miles higher up. The mouth of the river is said to afford safe anchorage for mer- o chant ships ; and small vessels can ascend within a few miles of the town; for the remainder of the distance, flat-bottomed lighters must be employed. The waterfall just above the town, cutting off* com- munication with the interior by the river, constitutes Narva a central emporium, and is the chief cause of