KARA SEA

kara sea, a portion of the arctic ocean demarcated, and except on the north-west completely enclosed, by novaya zemlya, vaygach island and the siberian coast. it is approached from the west by three straits--matochkin, between the two islands of novaya zemlya, and kara and yugor to the north and south of vaygach island respectively. on the south-east kara bay penetrates deeply into the mainland, and to the west of this the short kara river enters the sea. the sea is all shallow, the deepest parts lying off vaygach island and the northern part of novaya zemlya. it had long the reputation of being almost constantly ice-bound, but after the norwegian captain johannesen had demonstrated its accessibility in 1869, and nordenskiold had crossed it to the mouth of the yenisei in 1875, it was considered by many to offer a possible trade route between european russia and the north of siberia. but the open season is in any case very short, and the western straits are sometimes ice-bound during the entire year.