VAYGACH (variously Waigats, Waigatch, &c.)  , an island off the Arctic coast of Russia, between it and Novaya Zemlya, bounded S. by the narrow Yugor Strait, and N. by that of Kara . It is roughly oblong in form; its length from S.E. to N.W. is 70 m., and its greatest breadth 28 . Its greatest elevation scarcely exceeds 300 ft . For the most part it consists of tundra, with frequent marshes and small lakes . 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 frequently to be traced . The rocks are heavily scored by ice, but this was probably marine ice, not that of glaciers . 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 . The island is visited periodically by a few Samoyedes; they formerly considered it sacred, 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 Samoyedes still regard these piles with superstition .

The origin of the name

Vaygach is as dubious as its orthography; it has been-held to be Dutch (waaien, to blow, and gat, a strait, hence " windy strait ") or Russian, in which case it is probably a surname . Comparatively little was known of the interior of the island until Mr F . G . Jackson made the circuit of it on foot in 1893 (see his Great Frozen Land, London, 1895; also H . J . Pearson, Beyond Petsora Eastward, London, 1899) .