HOWORTH ON SURFACE ELEVATION IN ARCTIC REGIONS. 495 



the barren surface of the latter, a conglomerate of bones, stones, 

 and ice, has all the character of a recently recovered sea-bottom. 

 Wrangel tells us that ribs of Whales are often found on the west 

 coast, and that Whales are now very seldom seen on the Siberian 

 coast, while in the 18th century their appearance there was much 

 more frequent. The only cause for this desertion that I can sug- 

 gest is that assigned by the Spitzbergen fishermen, namely, that 

 the sea is becoming too shallow for the Whale. " The shores of 

 " the Polar Sea, from the Lena to Behring's Straits, are for the 

 " most part low and flat. In winter it is hard to say where land 

 " ends and sea begins. A few versts inland, however, a line of 

 " high ground runs parallel with the present coast, and formerly 

 *' no doubt constituted the boundary of the ocean. This belief is 

 " strengthened by the quantity of drift-wood found on the upper 

 '* level, and also by the shoals that run far out to sea, and will no 

 " doubt become dry land." * Again : " At several places along 

 *' the coast we found old weathered drift-wood at the height of 

 " two fathoms above the present level of the sea, while the fresh 

 " drift-wood lay on a lower level. This indicates change of level." 

 Again : " Captain Sarytschew says the winter-dwellings erected 

 " by Laptef on the bank where his vessel was driven on shore 

 " lead to the belief that the channel must formerly have been on 

 " that side. At present there is no water there for a vessel of 

 " any size, and even a boat can only approach at high water. At 

 '^ low water the shoal runs three versts out to sea." f Diomed 

 Island, described by Chalavrof in 1760, and by Laptef at a later 

 date, no longer exists : it now forms a part of the main. The 

 same voyagers describe the east coast of the Swatoi Moss as very 

 sinuous : it is now very straight, the sinuosities having meanwhile 

 disappeared. These facts will sufiice to prove that so far as we 

 have any evidence, the whole Siberian coast, as far as Behring's 

 Straits, is rising from the sea. 



In Mr. Grieves' translation of the *' History of Kamtchatka," I 

 find it stated, in the description of Behring's Island and the adja- 

 cent island, that, 30 fathoms higher than the sea-mark, lie wood 

 and whole skeletons of sea-animals which have been left by the 

 sea. J He speaks of one of the rivers at Ochotsk as being now 

 dry ; this is probably caused by upheaval. And in describing the 

 Penschinska Sea, he says he had seen *' trees which are not to be 

 " found in the country hanging out of the earth, and more than 

 " seven feet below the surface ; whence (he says), it may be con- 

 '< eluded that all these barren, boggy places, where at present 

 *' there are no woods but shrubs and stunted Sallows and Birches, 

 *' were once covered with water, which has decreased by degrees 

 " here, as it has on the north-eastern coast." § 



Quite recently Russian travellers have discovered on the coast 

 of the great island of Saghalien heaps of modern Shells, lying not 

 far from the shore on beds of marine clay, and also former bays, 



* Vou Wrangel, Sabine's translation. 



f Ibid., cvii. J Page 54 



§ Vou Wrangel, Sabine's translation, pp. 59-61. 



