NOTE ON THE GEOLOGY OF KOLGUEV 
Kotcurv IsLanp lies between 68° 43’ and 69° 30’ N. lat., and reaches 
from long. 48° 15’ to 49° 55’ East of Greenwich. Its greatest length 
from north to south is about fifty geographical miles, its extreme width 
from west to east is about forty geographical miles. Its distance from 
Sviatoi Nos, on the mainland of Arctic Russia, is fifty miles. The 
soundings between the island and the mainland are under thirty 
fathoms. Though in a broad sense we might speak of Kolguev as an 
extension of the continental tundra into the Arctic Sea, yet a critical 
examination of the surface geology of the island clearly shows that the 
modern Kolguev has not been connected with the mainland since its 
elevation above the sea. The surface geology of Kolguev plainly tells 
us the story of recent upheaval, so striking a feature in most Arctic and 
Polar lands, and which geologists, who have made those regions of the 
earth a study, are constantly impressing. 
During my three months’ stay in Kolguev, in my many journeyings 
and careful examination of river-beds and sections, both in the ravines 
of the more elevated high-lands, and along the steep mud cliffs that so 
generally fringe the sea-coast, I came on no rock surface 7” stfu, nor 
on any section where there was an exposure of stratified rock. I may 
at once say that I am completely in the dark, as far as my observations 
go, in regard to the solid geology of the island. 
The superficial area of the island is sharply divisible into two portions. 
Speaking generally, the northern two-thirds are high ground, which 
consist of peat-covered or of bare ridges intersected by gullies, and 
enclosing small lakes and swamps, and the remaining portion to the 
south is a dead flat of grass, bog and peat-levels reaching to the sea. 
Of mountains there are on Kolguev none that fairly deserve that 
name. Sowandeyi and Siecherhur, the two highest points on Kolguev 
(named by the Samoyeds from hills of the same name on the Timanski 
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