The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

NOVAYA ZEMLYA. 359frequented by the Russian fishers its existence was first revealed to the Westafter "Willoughby's voyage in 1553. It was again visited in 1556 by StephenBurrough, who also circumnavigated Waigatch by the two Straits of Yugor andKara, separating it from Russia and the southern extremity of Novaya Zemlya.Barents followed, and perished here during the hard winter of 1597, and in 1871the Norwegian Carlsen discovered in lat. 7G U 7', near the north-east end of thenorthern island, the house where Barents and Heemskerk had wintered two hundredand seventy-four years previously.All the objects found in it were collected andbrought to Holland, and the Amsterdam Geographical Society now proposes to raisea monument on a neighbouring headland in honour of the famous navigator.Novaya Zemlya may, on the whole, be considered as a continuation of the Uralrange, with which it is connected by Waigatch and the Pae Kkoi chain of likeFig. 1S9.'Waigatch Island and Kara and Ycgor Straits.Scale 1 = 2.6K>.0(in.Depth in Fathoms.i to 125. 125 to 230.60 Males.geological formation.The connection is interrupted, without being destroyed, bythe two intervening straits, beyond which the system traversesthe entire lengthof Novaya Zemlya, describing an arc 540 miles long, with its convex side turnedtowards Spitzbergen. The island is divided into two unequal parts by theMatochkin Shar, a channel some 30 feet deep, skirted by the highest elevationsin the range. Like the Urals themselves, these heights slope gently westwards,and abruptly towards the east, a disposition maintained also by the bed of the sea,which shoals gradually on the west and dips rapidly on the east side, where theline of 110 fathoms runs close to the shore.B B 2