494 HOWORTH ON SURFACE ELEVATION IN ARCTIC REGIONS. 



kinds of shells similar to those which inhabit the neighbouring 

 seas, and so well preserved that they had not lost their colours,* 



In some notes on the ice between Greenland and Nova Zembla, 

 by Captain Jansen,t he says, quoting an experienced navigator 

 called Thenius Ys : " Drift-wood, though there is plenty on the 

 " beach, is found far above this mark, and so remarkably high, 

 " that I do not understand how it is brought there." Again, 

 speaking of Captain Wm. de Vlaningh, who sailed along the 

 north and north-east coasts of Nova Zembla in 1664 : At a con- 

 siderable height he found on a rock, on the smallest of the three 

 Islands of Orange, a very large tree that three or four men could 

 not lift. This tree was rotten. The tree lay much too high to 

 have been brought there by water, perhaps by a waterspout he 

 says. 



The two islands of Nova Zembla are each divided from north 

 to south by a prolongation of the Ural Mountains, but they consist 

 chiefly of a marshy moss-clad plain. It has lately been found that 

 there are saline lakes in these islands. J 



M. de Middendorf states that the ground of the Siberian tundras 

 is in a great part covered with a thin coating of sand and fine clay, 

 exactly similar to that which is now deposited on the shores of the 

 Frozen Ocean. In this clay, too, which contains in such large 

 quantities the buried remains of Mammoths, there are also found 

 heaps of shells perfectly identical with those of the adjacent 

 ocean. Far inland, besides, traces of drift-wood are seen, the 

 trees which once grew in the forests of Southern Siberia : these 

 trees, having been first carried into the sea by the current of the 

 rivers, have been thrown up by the waves on the former coast, 

 which are now deserted by the sea.§ Our chief authority for the 

 shores of the Arctic Sea is Von Wrangel, and from his travels I 

 shall quote freely : — " In 1810, Hedenstrom went across the 

 '' Tundra direct to Utsjansk. He says, on the Tundra, equally 

 " remote from the present line of trees, among the steep sandy 

 " banks of the lakes and rivers are found large Birch-trees, com- 

 " plete with bark, branches, and roots. At first sight they appear 

 " well preserved, but on digging them up they are found to be in 

 '' a thorough state of decay. On being lighted they glow, but 

 " never burst into flame ; the inhabitants use them for fuel; tiiey 

 *' call them Adamoushina, or, * of Adam's time.' The first living 

 " Birch-tree is not now found nearer than three degrees to the 

 " south, and then only as shrubs." Again, in 1811, Samukof 

 reports that he found the skulls and bones of various animals in 

 the interior of Kotelnoi Island, and that both there and in New 

 Siberia he found large trees partially fossilized. These islands 

 have apparently all been recently submerged, for it is reported 

 that the greatest stores of Mammoth ivory are now got from the 

 sand-banks which are constantly appearing near the Bear Islands ; 



* " Eeclus, op. cit.," vol. ii. p. 627. 



t "Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society," vol. ix. p. 163. 



J Maltebrun : Geog., vol. ii. p. 394. 



§ Reclus, " The Earth," vol. ii. pp. 627, 628. 



