The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

300 RUSSIA IK EUROPE.Although frequented by fishers, and notwithstanding its proximity to themainland, the interior of Novaya Zemlya is still very imperfectly known. Ithas been visited by Liitke, Baer, Heuglin, Wilczek, and other scientificexplorers,but its systematic study is far from being comrjlete, and little has hitherto beendone beyond determining the coast-line and its total area, which is estimated atabout ''!G,430 square miles. Few of the heights have been accurately fixed, butFig. 190.View from the Matochkix Shak, Novaya Zemlya.from the summit of Wilczek Point (4,212 feet) Hofer and Wllczek noted, oneither side of the strait, several crests at least 4,000 feet high, and the meanelevation of the land seems to be about the same as that of Spitzbergen. TheMitushev Kamcn, west of AVilczekPoint, consists of protogine, like Mont Blanc,but the chief formations are schists and Devonian rocks, including some slatystrata so black that they have often been mistaken for coal. The island wasformerly supposed to be rich in minerals, particularly silver, but the special