ch. xx] Russian Arctic Discoveries 185 
side towards the Kara Sea from lat. 70 0 30' to nearly 77 0 N. 
They are a continuation of the Ural system and consist of 
a range of mountains with peaks of black clay and slate 
chiefly, rising to 4000 feet, and land covered by an ice sheet, 
with glaciers sometimes descending to the water's edge. 
The rocks are Upper Silurian or Devonian. The climate 
is colder than that of Spitsbergen. 
Opposite to Waigatz is Cape Menschikoff, the southern 
point of Novaya Zemlya, the coast trending thence 
westward to the deep bay called Kostin Shar, with the 
island of Meshdusharsky at its entrance. The Kostin 
Shar hills have a formation of grey primitive limestone, 
like the northern part of the Ural mountains. North of 
the Kostin Shar, on the west coast, is Goose Land, a 
low stretch of coast extending from 7i°3o' to 72 0 io', 
a distance of 40 miles. It consists of grass flats and small 
lakes, the breeding-place of geese and swans, and in the 
short summer the flowering plants cover the land with 
as beautiful a carpet as on the Waigatz. Belusha Bay, 
where there is a Samoyed settlement, is on the South 
Goose coast, and there are submerged reefs, as well as 
rocks and islets, which render the navigation dangerous. 
Goose Land ends to the north at Moller Bay, the northern 
termination of which is Cape Britvin (= Razor). Here 
the coast line rises to 300 or 400 feet, in raised beaches, 
and there is a depth of only 10 to 20 fathoms four miles 
from the shore. Nameless Bay is bounded on all sides 
but the west by high hills, from 800 to 1500 feet above 
the sea, which slope downwards, and terminate in pre- 
cipitous limestone cliffs, with a sheer face of a hundred 
feet, broken by narrow ledges. These cliffs form the 
famous " loomeries," extending along the southern side 
of the bay for three miles, and here, during the breeding 
season, the birds congregate in countless myriads. 
The entrance to the Matyushin Strait has Cape 
Saulen on the south side, and Silver Cape, 1885 feet high, 
on the north. On both sides of the strait the mountains 
rise in a series of lofty peaks, covered with snow, and with 
glaciers resting on their sides. Through this moun- 
tainous region the deep and narrow channel called the 
Matyushin Shar winds from the Barentsz to the Kara 
Sea. It is nowhere two miles across, and in some places 
