KOLA, a peninsula of northern Russia lying between the Barents sea on the north and the White sea on the south and having an area of 5o,000 sq.m. It is a plateau 600-700 ft. in height, mainly composed of granite and gneiss and is, geo graphically, an eastward extension of the mountainous region of Scandinavia. The snow capped granitic mountain masses of Umptek and Luyavrot reach a height of 3,500 to 4,000 ft. West of them lies a lowland gap stretching from Kola gulf in the north to the Kandalaksk gulf of the White sea in the south. Near the middle lies Lake Imandra, 67 m. from S.W. to N.E. from which the Niva river flows into Kandalaksk gulf, while to the north are smaller lakes connected by the Kola river. Lakes and rivers are numerous, and the watersheds are often ill-defined morasses, since the area is part of the Finnish moraine region. Towards the north the river valleys are clothed with birch and pine, in contrast to the general tundra nature of the region, but in the south thin birch woods extend over the whole area. Rapids make the rivers useless for navigation, and many are very shallow during summer and flooded in spring. Agriculture is impossible, the soil being poor and unproductive tundra, bog and podzol (see RUSSIA: Soils) and the climate unfavourable, with a very short, cool summer average July temperature 54.8° F and a long winter, average January temperature 11.8° F, average rainfall per annum 8 in., half of which falls between June and August. The influence of the Atlantic drift is felt for some distance inland from the Mur mansk coast (q.v.). The northern limit of cultivation excludes all the peninsula east of the Kola-Kandalaksk depression, but west of it potatoes, turnips and barley are grown to a small extent; the peninsula depends entirely on imported grain. Cattle and pigs are raised in the grassy valleys. Cloudberries, bilberries and crow berries are abundant in summer. Birds are numerous, especially the ptarmigan, willow grouse, capercailzie, eider-duck, goose and puffin. The nomad tribes breed reindeer. Salmon are found in the rivers, and herring and seal are caught off th:. White sea coasts. The settlements are mainly fishing stations on the Mur mansk coast, and the chief town is Murmansk (q.v.). The railway constructed in 1917 runs through the main depression northwards to Murmansk and settlements are springing up already (1928) along it. Otherwise communication is extremely difficult. There are a few reindeer sledge tracks in winter, but in summer they become swampy and mosquitoes are so numerous as to interfere with transit, and make it impossible for animals to be used.
Mineral wealth consists mainly of silver, lead and zinc ore re ported, but not worked, on the Murmansk coast, and silver mines worked on Medvied island in Kandalaksk gulf. A scientific expe dition in 1927 under Professor Fersman found a marked magnetic anomaly suggestive of more extensive iron-deposits than the bog ore already known to exist. Copper exists in the Ponoi valley near Umba and gold near Kola. Pearls are found in the rivers, especially in the Kola and Tuloma. Apart from the Russian Finns and Norwegians in the fishing settlements of the Murmansk district, the population consists mainly of Lapps. The Lapps are a Finno-Ugrian type, the shortest and most brachycephalic race in Europe. They have high cheek bones, narrow eyes, not Mon golian in type, a good deal of hair on the face and a broad nose. They have been much modified by interbreeding with Russians and Norwegians and their numbers, including half-breeds, are probably about 2,500-3,000. They differ from the Finnish Lapps in dialect and in being entirely illiterate ; their language some what resembles Mordvinian, but also shows Finnish influence. The Lyavozersk Lapps speak a different dialect from that of the Ponoi Lapps; and the latter have been much more influenced by Russian customs than the former. The Lapps are nomads and breed rein deer in a somewhat casual way. In summer they allow the rein deer to run wild and occupy themselves with fishing; in winter the herds are kept near the winter villages feeding on the reindeer moss, and this method means that the village becomes bare of lichen and is deserted every few years. Their food is reindeer flesh and dried or salted fish in the winter, and snow chickens, waterfowl and berries in the summer. They trade their reindeer products for knives, gunpowder and small articles with the Rus sians and Zirians and, before the railway came, did much trans port of goods in their boat shaped reindeer sledges. Adminis tratively the peninsula forms part of the Murmansk district of the Leningrad area. Its total population including the town of Murmansk was 23,016 in 1926.
See Handbook of Siberia and Arctic Russia, I.D. 2207 (1920) ; A. 0. Kihlmann and Palmeri, Die Expedition nach der Halbinsel Kola (2887-92) ; A. 0. Kihlmann, Bericht einer naturwissenschaftlichen Reise durch Russisch-Lappland (Helsingfors, 2890) ; and W. Ramsay, Geologische Beobachtungen auf der Halbinsel Kola (Helsingfors, 1899).