THE PORT OF KOLA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16304, 3 December 1918, Page 3

THE PORT OF KOLA.

ICE-FREE MURMAN COAST. The Russian port of Kola and the Murman coast generally sprang into prominence recently in connection with the Allied campaign against the Gormans and Bolsheviks in North Russia. Kola is situated at the junction of the Kola and Tuioma Rivers. Before the war it had only about 600 inhabitants, according to a war geography bulletin of the National Geographic Society. Prior 1 to the collapse of all organised governments in Russia, however, it had become a place of great importance because of the fact that its harbopr is relatively free from ice all the year, thanks to its location on the Murman coast, which is tempered by the North Atlantic drift. Kola is about 25 miles south of Aloxandrovsk, the Russian naval base established nineteen years ago, five miles from the mouth of Kola Bay.

In peace times the chief occupation of the people of Kola is fishing, which is profitably followed by tho natives from May to August. Kola is well within the arctic circle, being in latitude 68” 52’. It is 335 miles northwest of Archangel, the great White Sea. port of Russia. Tho peninsula of- Kola constitutes the major part of what is known as Russian Lapland. It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean and on the south by tho White Sea. It is largely a plateau having an average elevation of 1000 feet. The arctic shore, extending a distance of 260 miles, is known as tho Human coast (a corruption of “Norman”). It presents _a rugged appearance, with cliffs rising abruptly from the sea to a height of nearly 700 feet in many places. There are several indentations, however, whore excellent anchorage may be found. One of these breaks in the granite line is Kola Bay. The month of July in this region is usually quite warm.and the crops mature rapidly, the time of harvest being August, which is also the rainy month. Winter settles down over the peninsula in November.

The Kola and Tuloma are two of the many rivers which flow into the Arctic; there are also several large streams which drain the southern half of ii* peninsula and flow into the White Sea.