NOVAYA ZEMLYA. 



361 



Government survey conducted by Ludlow in 1809 failed to detect anything 

 beyond a little argentiferous galena and some traces of pyrites and copper. 



Glaciers descend at many points to the water's edge, and they seem to have 

 formerly projected beyond the coast-line, for striae and polished rocks have been 

 detected on the islets of Rogachov Bay, south of Cape Gusinoi. Although in a 

 more southern latitude than Spitsbergen, the mean annual temperature of Novaya 

 Zemlya is under 23" Fahr. In the Maliye Karmakuli Creek (Moller Bay), 

 72° 30' N. Lit., the Norwegian Captain Bjerkan, who wintered here in 1876-7, 

 found that the glass never rose above 9° Fahr. in December, falling to — 14° Fahr. 

 on January 2nd. Yet the yearly temperature is here somewhat higher than in 

 the Kara Strait, 180 miles farther south or south-east. From observations made 

 at various times Wild has determined the mean temperature of the Matochkin 



Fig. 191. — The Matochkix Shar Channel. 

 Scale 1 : 1,000,000. 



15 Miles. 



Shar passage at 17° Fahr., although it rises to 20° Fahr. at the Melkaya Guba, 

 farther north, and falls to 15° at the Guba Kamanka, 156 miles nearer the equator. 



These anomalies are probably due to the warm tropical currents flowing 

 towards the west side of Novaya Zeml3'a, but without quite reaching the southern 

 island. The great body of these currents passes over the deep trough separating 

 Bear Island from Scandinavia, and sets eastwards to the Barents Sea with such 

 rapidity that vessels have been known to drag their anchors off Hope Island, 

 forming the extreme south-east point of the Spitzbergen group. In the 

 INIatochkin Shar there is a very perceptible through current, especially under 

 the western cliffs of the north island. In these currents, whose temperature 

 is above freezing point, the floating masses melt rapidly, so that icebergs 

 are seldom met south of the seventy-fifth parallel in the section of the Barents 

 Sea washing the north coast of Lapland. 



Although free at times from ice-fields, Novaya Zemlya is in other respects 

 entirely a polar region. Its cliffs, freed from the snow by the sun, fogs, and winds, 

 seem from a distance perfectly bare ; but a closer inspection reveals the yellowish 

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