54 COL. H. W. FEILDEN ON KOLGUEV ISLAND. [Feb. 1 896,. 



tundra, quite detached from the other hills to the northward, like 

 an islet in the sea. 



The contour-shading of the elevated plateau in the map attached 

 to Mr. Trevor-Battye's book is drawn rather too abruptly, and is 

 made to extend rather too much to the southward. From what I 

 saw, the elevated region does not extend south of Mount Bolvana, 

 but terminates with Mount Sowandeyi and Mount Lodka. When 

 the highland of Kolguev emerged from the sea, and the island was 

 then about two-thirds of its present size, in all probability Mount 

 Bolvana was its southern apex, and it is easy to understand, if 

 the elevatory process was slow, that the destruction of the soft 

 material of which it is composed might have been effected without 

 difficulty by marine erosion. I think this explanation satisfactorily 

 accounts for the present peculiar shape of Mount Bolvana, and that 

 it was at one time an integral portion of the highland of Kolguev. 



The appearance of the western side of Kolguev, though we coasted 

 along it in favourable weather and bright sunshine, is dismal and 

 uninteresting in the extreme. Low, dreary-looking bluffs of clay, 

 of a mournful bluish-grey colour and some 60 to 70 feet high, 

 stretch from the mouth of the Gosena River, at the north-western 

 end of the island, to the mouth of the Gobista ; but there is a gentle 

 though perceptible lowering of the coast-line from north to south. 

 At the mouth of the Gobista River the height of the shore-bluffs 

 has dwindled to about 40 feet. From the Gobista to the Kriva,. 

 some 6 miles south, the land sinks more rapidly, and at the extreme 

 south-western corner of the island merges with the sea, a consider- 

 able portion of the island near the sea-shore being overlain with 

 recent sea-sand. 



The margin of the bluffs that form the western shore of Kolguev 

 is not usually a vertical wall of clay, but is generally hidden under 

 a slope or talus which has fallen from above. The destruction of 

 the coast-line would be still more rapid, but for the protection given 

 by the snow-foot which forms upon the sloping talus. This snow- 

 foot is merely an immense accumulation which gathers in the ravines 

 or collects upon the slopes. By the combined action of the sun's 

 rays and the wash of the sea, this snow becomes of an ice-like 

 character, and gives effective aid in protecting the cliffs. Though 

 there are no rivers navigable by the smallest sea-going craft r 

 yet there are three streams of considerable size that discharge on 

 the western side of Kolguev. These are the Gosena, Gobista, an& 

 Kriva rivers. I have visited only the last two. In addition there 

 are many smaller rivulets that help to drain this supersaturated 

 island, and as they have cut out for themselves deep ravines, far 

 out of proportion to the volume of water that is carried off by them, 

 they give to the clay-cliffs a varied character, and in passing along 

 the coast we see ravine, and dell, and steep-sided watercourse, which 

 to a certain extent relieve the dreary monotony. These minor 

 ravines, as a rule, are not of any great length. Originating as runnels 

 in the peat of the flat tundra, they act as drains for carrying off the 



