VAYGACH ISLAND

'Vaygach Island' () is an island in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, in the Arctic Sea on the border of the Barents Sea and Kara Sea.
Vaygach Island is separated from the mainland by the Yugorsky Strait and Kara Strait, correspondingly. The island is a part of Nenets Autonomous Okrug of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia.

★ Area: 3,383 km²

★ Length: ~100 km

★ Width: up to 45 km

★ Average temperatures: −20°С (February), +5°С (June)

★ Highest point: 170 m
Vaygach Island is mainly formed with argillaceous slates, sandstone, and limestone. There are many rivers (20–40 km in length), swamps, and small lakes on the island. Its greatest elevation scarcely exceeds 30a ft. For the most part it consists of tundra. Slight rocky ridges run generally along its length, and the coast has low cliffs in places. The island consists in the main of limestone, and its elevation above the sea is geologically recent. Raised beaches are frequent. The rocks are heavily scored by ice, but this was probably marine ice, not that of glaciers. The settlements of Vaygach, Dolgaya Guba, and Varnek are located on the island.

Contents

Fauna & Flora

Ethnography

Books

External link

Fauna & Flora

Grasses, mosses and Arctic flowering plants are abundant, but there are no trees excepting occasional dwarf willows. Foxes and lemmings are met with, but whereas animals are few, birds are very numerous; a variety of ducks, waders, &c., frequent the marshes and lakes.

Ethnography

The name of the island translates from the Nenets as "alluvial shore". Until the 19th century, the island was an important shrine of the Nenets people. There were polycephalic wooden idols painted with blood of holy animals, primarily reindeers.
The island was formerly considered sacred by the Nenets, and some of their sacrificial piles, consisting of drift-wood, deer's horns and the skulls of bears and deer, have been observed by travellers. In spite of their conversion to Christianity, the Nenets still regard these piles with superstition.

Books

★ F. G. Jackson. ''Great Frozen Land''. London, 1895.

★ H. J. Pearson. ''Beyond Petsora Eastward''. London, 1899.

External link

★ Vaigach - The 'Easter Island of the Arctic'