86 POLAR PROBLEMS 



the remnants found on the mainland have been buried on the spot 

 where the animals lived and died. 



The Outstanding Unsolved Problems 



Having now briefly reviewed the geological history of Arctic 

 Eurasia, the outstanding problems still to be solved in the geology of 

 this region will be pointed out in more or less categorical form. 



1 . The discovery of new islands in the Asiatic waters of the Arctic 

 should be pushed further. Nearly every one of the last northern 

 expeditions which cruised along the Asiatic coast happened to dis- 

 cover, within the border of the continental shelf, new islands, some- 

 times of large dimensions, such as Northern Land (Nicholas II Land). 

 There are immense areas in the Arctic not yet crossed by any vessel 

 and not yet visited by any traveler.^ Among the natives of northern 

 Siberia there are rumors of unknown lands in the ocean, of passage 

 birds going and coming in a direction where nothing is yet known but 

 sea. These rumors are presumably not groundless and should be 

 verified. The sections of the ocean located in front of the old horsts of 

 the mainland are especially important and promising for such a search. 



2. Geographical and geological investigation of the little-known 

 Arctic parts of the mainland and islands should be carried out. Only 

 a part of the eastern and southern shores of Northern Land, for 

 example, have been reconnoitered. The configuration of the Arctic 

 shore of the mainland between the Ob and Yenisei Rivers was com- 

 pletely changed by the work of a Russian expedition in 1922. As 

 for the geology of Arctic Eurasia on the geological map of Asiatic 

 Russia in 1:10,500,000 pubhshed by the Geological Committee in 

 1922,2 Novaya Zemlya, Northern Land, the largest part of Taimyr 

 Peninsula, and the huge area of northeastern Siberia, equal perhaps to 

 half of the surface of Europe, are shown as entirely unknown geo- 

 logically. Large areas of Arctic Siberia as also of northeastern Europe 

 on the same map are marked with this or that color only as a result of 

 a few reconnaissances and often in a suggestive way only. 



3. The scheme of division of Arctic Eurasia into a number of old- 

 lands which are the remnants of an ancient continent, separated by 

 graben-like sections, should be tested by geologists who may visit 

 these regions. Especially the borders of the horsts should be checked, 

 and faults, upon which these borders presumably are dependent, should 

 be proved or disproved. 



4. The distribution of Middle and Upper Paleozoic as well as of 

 Mesozoic strata exclusively within the supposed grabens should be 

 checked. 



2 See the map, Fig. 6, in Dr. Nansen's paper above. — Edit. Note. 



3 Of the fundamental base map of Asiatic Russia in 1:4,200,000 a number of sheets (Nos. 3. 4. 4 

 bis, 7, 8) have recently been published with geological coloring for areas actually explored. — 

 Edit. Note. 



