The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

3G2RUSSIA IN EUROPE.or rusty hues of their mossy vegetation. The plains produce a few floweringplants, and according to Heuglin the flora comprises altogether 150 phanerogamousand nearly an equal number of cryptogamous species. There are alsosome tracts of dwarf birch, elder, and fir trees ; but the most common tree is aspecies of willow [Salix polaris), rising a little more than half an inch above thesurrounding lichens. The giant of these arctic forests is a willow (Salix lanata),some specimens of which grow to a height of 6 inches. The growth of theseplants is rather in their roots than their stems, so that the Novaya Zemlyan, likethe North Ural forests, might be described as subterranean.The fauna is richer than that of Spitzbergen, besides various species ofcetacea, including the bear, wolf, two species of fox, reindeer, hare, mouse, andcampagnol. Heuglin raised the number on the list of birds from twenty-eightto forty-five, but mosquitoes, the plague of the Russian and Siberian tundras, arerare both here and in Waigatch Island.The southern portion of Novaya Zemlya was formerly inhabited by theSamoyeds, who have long either disappeared or withdrawn to the mainland.Nowthe place is occupied only by a sprinkling of Europeans settled at the permanentharbour of refuge established in 1877 at Maliye Karmakuli, on Holler Bay, andat a few fishing and hunting stations. Although included in the Russiandominions, the group may be traversed in all directions without meeting anyindication of the Czar's supremacy.