prominent to justify a separate consideration. For convenience 

 and accuracy the Arctic and Subarctic will be discussed together. 



COASTAL AREAS 



The Kola Peninsula is an extension of the Baltic shield region 

 of northern Scandinavia. It is a glaciated barren country with 

 abundant lakes, several sizable rivers and at least one very im- 

 portant harbor, Murmansk. The coast is rugged with granite 

 cliffs rising over 500 feet above the sea with only occasional sandy 

 beaches at the mouths of the rivers. East of the White Sea, the 

 North Russian plains extend along the coast to the Urals, being 

 broken only by the Timan Hills west of Pechora River. These are 

 relatively flat plains covered with glacial deposits in the form of 

 moraines, eskers and drumlins. Although these are minor fea- 

 tures of low relief, they are locally important because the gentle 

 ridges and hills rise above the marshy, lake-covered plain. On 

 these drier sites are located the villages and fortifications. 



The Timan Hills are a branch of the Urals. The glaciated 

 northern end of the Urals can hardly be said to break the plain, 

 since the general topography is similar on either side of this range. 

 East of the Urals the tundra-covered plain extends many hundreds 

 of miles to the Yenisei. The coast is broken by several large bays 

 including the Cheshkaya, Pechora, Baydaratskaya, the deep gulf 

 of Obskaya, and the Gulf of Yenisei. The lower drainage basins 

 of the Ob and Irtysh are vast bogs and swamps, subject to flooding. 

 They become impassable quagmires in summer. 



East of the Yenisei the arctic plain extends along the coast, nar- 

 rowing toward the east, to the Lena River. The Khatanga, 

 Anabar, and Olenek drain this area. Along the north coast of 

 Taimyr Peninsula, the Biranga plateau rises some 2,000 feet, 

 being a rather abrupt break in the coastal plain. From the Lena 

 eastward, the coastal area is mainly a series of ranges rising over 

 6,000 feet, broken only by the lowlands at the mouth of the Kolyma. 

 It should be noted that the rivers east of the Taimyr Peninsula 

 have deltas while those to the west have estuaries. 



Off the coast there are many small islands and several large 

 island groups, including Novaya Zemlya, Severnya Zemlya or 

 North Land, the New Siberian Islands, and Wrangel Island. 

 Farther to the north lie the Franz Joseph Land group of islands. 



The shores of the Arctic Sea are icebound for at least 5 months 

 and the rivers for about 8 months. On the Barents Sea the port 



77 



