Vol. 52.] 



OF ARCTIC EUROPE AM) ITS ISLANDS. 



27 



Fig. 3. — View on the Ulcanskoe River, Kola Peninsula, showing fringe 

 of erratics skirting the shore. 



[From a photograph by H. J. Pearson, 1895.] 



the writer reached. A remarkable and prevailing feature of the 

 country is the vast number of erratic blocks spread over it in every 

 direction. Standing on some eminence we see around us countless 

 boulders, all clad in coats of shaggy lichen, reminding one of Catlin's 

 pictures of herds of bison resting on the prairies of the Far West. 

 But our astonishment is increased when we examine them individually, 

 and see the extraordinary positions that some of them occupy. Here 

 a huge block resting on a couple of others, there two or three raised 

 directly one upon another, again others standing as monoliths. From 

 the descriptions of the distribution of erratics in Finland and Lap- 

 land by Durocher, Wraxall, Clarke, and others, I was prepared to 

 sec a remarkable number, but their dispersal over this portion of 

 the Kola Peninsula excited my astonishment. 



When the eye becomes better acquainted with the position of these 

 blocks, certain salient features appear. Though they are spread 

 generally over the surface of the country and lie broadcast on 

 eminences and slopes, yet there is a tendency for them to collect in 

 hollows and undulations of the surface. A notable feature in these 

 aggregations is the entire absence of earth, clay, or sand between 

 the blocks. As all these boulders arc covered with a thick lichen- 

 growth, it is impossible to note whether they are grooved or ice- 



