50 REV. D. GATH WHITLEY, ON THE 
up to that time, been doubted. This island has received the 
name of Sannikoff Land, and les, according to Von Toll, 100 
miles to the north of Kotelnoi and New Siberia. Baron Toll 
found the summer on Kotelnoi to be cold and cheerless. Snow 
showers fell nearly every day, and in most of the valleys the 
snow lay throuzhout the whole of the summer, while the shores 
were always blocked by ice; what the winter may be can be 
easily imagined. Neither trees, shrubs, or bushes exist on the 
island, and yet the bones of elephants, rhinoceroses, buffaloes, 
and horses are found in this icy wilderness in numbers which 
defy all calculation. 
In May, 1893, Baron Toll again visited these remarkable 
islands in company with Lieutenant Shileiko. They first went 
to Maloi, which is one of the Liakoff Islands, and the second 
island that Liakoff discovered. In this island they discovered 
the bones of mammoths and other anitnals, and they also found 
the trunks of fossil trees, with leaves and cones. This striking 
discovery proves that in the days when the mammoth and 
rhinoceros lived in Northern Siberia, these desolate islands were 
covered with great forests, and bore a luxuriant vegetation. 
From Maloi, Baron Toll and Lieutenant Shileiko went on to 
Kotelnoi, the winter inhabitants of which seem only to be 
mice, although white bears were frequently met with on the 
ice near the islands, The return journey of the explorers over 
the ice to the mainland was difficult, because the ice was 
melting, and loose snow and open water were encountered. 
Nevertheless, the return journey from Kotelnoi was safely 
accomplished, and the expedition regained the Siberian coast.* 
From these, and from the former explorations, it is clear that 
enormous deposits formed of the remains of fossil forests exist 
on the islands of Maloi, Kotelnoi, and New Siberia. The 
“Wood Hills” of New Siberia have been frequently described, 
and similar buried forests have been found in Kotelnoi in numbers 
perhaps even greater than in New Siberia. All this shows, 
that in times geologically speaking very recent, a vigorous 
vegetation reached far up into the regions of the North Pole, 
where at present neither trees, shrubs, or bushes are found. 
The remains of these great Tertiary or Post Tertiary forests, 
are constantly being discovered far up in the Arctic Regions. 
The relies of great forests of the Miocene Era have been found 
* A notice of the journeys of Baron Toll and Professor Bunge will be 
found in the ‘owrnals of the Royal Geographical Society for September, 
1887, and May, 1894. 
