172 COL. FEILDEN AND MR. GELDART ON THE FLORA OF KOLGUEV. 
between are under thirty fathoms, yet the evidence is entirely 
opposed to Kolguev having been connected with the Continent since 
its elevation above the sea. The present Kolguev is doubtless a 
part of what has lately been the bottom of Barents Sea, and 
probably fairly represents the floor of the ocean for a considerable 
area around. The recent emergence of Kolguev gives to its flora 
an interest which otherwise it might not possess. As there is no 
evidence throughout the entire length and breadth of the island, of 
any older rock formation showing through its glacio-marine beds, 
which might have been the mother-earth of some of the plants 
now growing there, we are entitled to assume that its present flora 1 
is derived entirely from immigration, and that within a comparatively 
recent period. That the transport of plants or their seeds may 
readily be effected by floating ice, cannot be doubted by those who 
have noticed the large quantities of earth and debris resting on the 
ice-floes which float in summer from the White Sea, and the estuary 
of the Petchora river, into Barents Sea. This ice-pack drifts around, 
and is at the present day pushed up on the shores of Kolguev, and 
a similar process must have been going on since the period when 
the island first commenced to emerge as a sand-bank from the sea. 
It is, therefore, only what we might expect to find, that the flora 
shows closer affinity with that of the mainland than with Novaya 
Zemlya. Probabty birds have contributed as well to the transporta- 
tion of seeds, and it may not be out of place to mention that three 
species of freshwater Mollusca were found in the swamps of the 
Gobista valley — 
Planorbis borealis, Loven. 
Limncea palustris, Muller, var. terebra 
,, ovata, Draparnaud, var. Icolgueveitsis, E. A. Smith. 
This fog-environed, wind-tormented island of Kolguev is excep- 
tionally dreary and desolate-looking. There is not one redeeming 
feature in its scenery. No mountains, no brawling streams, no 
woods, no rocky cliffs to ennoble the view. The entire western side 
of Kolguev, from the mouth of the Gusina river to that of the 
Gobista, is a long straight line of bluff running nearly due north 
and south. At intervals, ravines and gullies made by streams 
issuing from the interior break the coast-line. Theso bluffs rise to 
a height of about a hundred feet at the north-west end of the 
island, but sink by an almost imperceptible dip from north to south, 
