Yol. 52.] COL. H. W. FEILDEN ON" KOLGUEV ISLAND. 53 



•of the higher lands of Kolguev ; his information, note-book, and 

 sketches were generously placed at my disposal, so that I am able 

 to write with confidence on certain points which otherwise would 

 have partaken more or less of the nature of surmise. 



As a general description of Kolguev, that given by Mr. Trevor- 

 Jkttye cannot be bettered in accuracy or terseness. He writes : — 

 * The superficial area of the island is sharply divisible into two 

 portions. Speaking generally, the northern two-thirds are high 

 ground, which consists of peat-covered or of bare ridges intersected 

 by gullies, and enclosing small lakes and swamps, and the re- 

 maining portion to the south is a dead flat of grass, bog, and peat- 

 levels reaching to the sea.' He estimates the highest elevations of 

 Kolguev at 250 feet. 



In the neighbourhood of the mouth of the Gobista River, where 

 we made our camp, and a mile inland, we found the highest spots 

 about 90 feet above sea-level ; and when the atmosphere was clear 

 we could distinctly see the more elevated portion of the island, 

 rising apparently some 10 or 15 miles to the eastward of our 

 station, Mount Sowandeyi and the remarkable, isolated, rounded 

 mass of Mount Bolvana being easily determined. The difference in 

 level between the summit of the clay- cliffs of the western coast 

 and the elevated plateau of the interior cannot be less than 200 feet, 

 consequently the elevated- plateau portion of the island must have 

 been the latest in deposition and the first part to emerge from the 

 sea. It is, therefore, a matter of satisfaction to me that I have 

 obtained from Mr. Trevor-Battye some fuller particulars regarding 

 the formation of Mount Sowandeyi, Mount Bolvana, and the highest 

 points that he visited in the northern plateau, than he has already 

 published (op. cit. pp. 392-395). At the highest point that he 

 traversed in the northern portion of the island, and not far from 

 the head-waters of the Pesanka, he found an elevation of 250 feet. 

 At this spot a good section showed from the surface about 80 feet of 

 sand-beds, charged with erratic boulders : these beds of sand rest 

 on clay. At Mount Sowandeyi, some 20 miles directly south, the 

 same formation shows again : the summit of Sowandeyi for a depth 

 of about 80 feet being composed of sand with boulders, imme- 

 diately underneath which comes the clay. Mount Bolvana, some 

 .5 miles to the south-west, is similarly constructed. 



From these observations of Mr. Trevor-Battye, made along a 

 line embracing the greater part of the high plateau of Kolguev, 

 we may reasonably infer that the entire elevated region of the 

 island is composed of beds of sand containing erratic boulders 

 to a depth of not less than 80 feet, and that these sandy beds rest 

 on the Kolguev Clays. Mount Sowandeyi and Mount Bolvana, 

 in my opinion, point to a great marine erosion which must have 

 taken place at the period of their emergence from the sea, for it is 

 hardly possible to doubt that they must have formed at one time a 

 -continuous part of the northern plateau. The profile of Mount 

 Bolvana is very singular : it rises as a symmetrical cone above the 



