NOTE ON THE GEOLOGY OF KOLGUEV 



Kolguev Island lies between 68° 43' and 69 30' N. lat., and reaches 

 from long. 48 15' to 49° 55' East of Greenwich. Its greatest length 

 from north to south is about fifty geographical miles, its extreme width 

 from west to east is about forty geographical miles. Its distance from 

 Sviatoi Nos, on the mainland of Arctic Russia, is fifty miles. The 

 soundings between the island and the mainland are under thirty 

 fathoms. Though in a broad sense we might speak of Kolguev as an 

 extension of the continental tundra into the Arctic Sea, yet a critical 

 examination of the surface geology of the island clearly shows that the 

 modern Kolguev has not been connected with the mainland since its 

 elevation above the sea. The surface geology of Kolguev plainly tells 

 us the story of recent upheaval, so striking a feature in most Arctic and 

 Polar lands, and which geologists, who have made those regions of the 

 earth a study, are constantly impressing. 



During my three months' stay in Kolguev, in my many journeyings 

 and careful examination of river-beds and sections, both in the ravines 

 of the more elevated high-lands, and along the steep mud cliffs that so 

 generally fringe the sea-coast, I came on no rock surface in situ, nor 

 on any section where there was an exposure of stratified rock. I may 

 at once say that I am completely in the dark, as far as my observations 

 go, in regard to the solid geology of the island. 



The superficial area of the island is sharply divisible into two portions. 

 Speaking generally, the northern two-thirds are high ground, which 

 consist of peat-covered or of bare ridges intersected by gullies, and 

 enclosing small lakes and swamps, and the remaining portion to the 

 south is a dead flat of grass, bog and peat-levels reaching to the sea. 



Of mountains there are on Kolguev none that fairly deserve that 

 name. Sowandeyi and Siecherhur, the two highest points on Kolguev 

 (named by the Samoyeds from hills of the same name on the Timanski 



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