158 FRIDTJOF NANSEN. M.-N. Kl. 



'I'licir suhiiK rt^c'l surfaces arc comparât i\cly even, and cc^nsi'Urahh 

 more su llian iliat of ilic 'I'ra-iia I'laleau, lo wliicli they otherwise have 

 resemblances in se\eral respects. Alonf,^ tlieir middle parts the surface 

 is near sea-level or only some few metres helow it forminj^ horizontal 

 planes wliicli on hoili plateaus extenrl towards the north-western sifle, 

 where i1k'\' come near the outer slopes with fairly sharply defined edges 

 at depths of ahout 5 or (> metres below mean sea-level. Towards the 

 opposite, /. ('. the south-eastern, sides of the plateaus their surfaces are 

 more slopint^-, with less sharply flefincd edges, perhaps at about 20 metres 

 or more below sea-level. Towards the south-west the surfaces of both 

 ])lateaus slope more or less gently, and in most j)laces with no well marked 

 edges at any special depth. Tn their north-eastern parts they have, how- 

 ever, more sharply defined edges at some few metres below sea-level. 



Rostoi, the biggest island of the Ivost Plateau, is situated near its 

 north-eastern end and is ([uite flat, its highest part l)eing only i i metres 

 above sea-level. Most of the many other islands on this plateau are also 

 quite low and flat, but some of them form isolated 'stacks' with steep 

 sides rising abruptly above the plane of the strandfiat to heights of about 

 100 to 167 metres above the sea [cf. f. H. I.. \'ogt, 1907. p. 12, Th. \'ogt, 

 1 91 2]. They are obviously the last remnants of the old land, which the 

 shore erosion has not managed to plane down to sea-level. On the fairly 

 flat tops of most of these 'stacks' (called 'nyker') the old, Palæic, land- 

 surface still remains, almost intact, extending with its rounded undulating 

 forms to the abrupt edges of the precipitous side walls [cf. Th. A'ogt, 

 1912, i)p. 7 ff.]. 



This is still more striking on the island \'æroi, where this old land- 

 surface is of a greater extent with sharplv marked edges above the 

 precipitous side cliffs [cf. Th. \ ogt's illustrative drawing, 1912, Fig. 8 . 



Here again we have thus convincing proof that, during the last period 

 when the strandfiat of this region was planed to its present shape, the 

 effect of the subaërial denudation has been insignificant as compared 

 with that of the shore erosion. 



As was already pointed out by Th. A ogt, it is striking that on the 

 Rost Plateau as well as the A æroi Plateau, the high islands, being the 

 remnants of the initial land, are all of them situated along the eastern or 

 south-eastern sides of the plateaus, with the greater part of the submerged 

 strandfiat on the outer side towards the west and north-west. The natural 

 explanation might seem to be that this is due to the marine denudation 

 wdiich has attacked the plateaus most vigorously on their outer sides. 

 But the above mentioned fact that the surfaces of the plateaus are most 

 level, and nearest the sea-surface in their north-western parts and have 

 the most sharply defined edges along their north-western sides might seem 

 contradictory to this explanation. 



