Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/662

604 N V N O V Church, and the sect finally disappeared some two centuries after its origin. Novatian has sometimes been confounded with his contemporary Novatus, a Carthaginian presbyter, who held similar views. Novatian was the first Roman Christian who wrote to any con siderable extent in Latin. Of his numerous writings three are extant: (1) a letter written in the name of the Roman clergy to Cyprian in 250 ; (2) a treatise in thirty-one chapters, De Trinitate; (3) a letter written at the request of the Roman laity, De Cibis Judaicis. They are well - arranged compositions, written in an elegant and vigorous style. The best editions are by Welchman (Oxford, 1724) and by Jackson (London, 1728) ; they are translated in vol. ii. of Cyprian s works in the Ante-Nicene Theol. Libr. (Edin burgh, 1869). The Novatian controversy can be advantageously studied in the Epistles of Cyprian. NOVATION is a term derived from the Roman law, in which novatio was of three kinds substitution of a new debtor (expromissio or delegatio), of a new creditor (cessio nominum vel actionuni), or of a new contract. In English law the term (though it occurs as early as Bracton) is scarcely yet naturalized, the substitution of a new debtor or creditor being generally called an assignment, and of a new contract a merger. It is doubtful, however, whether merger applies except where the substituted contract is one of a higher nature, as where a contract under seal supersedes a simple contract. Where one contract is re placed by another, it is of course necessary that the new contract should be a valid contract, founded upon sufficient consideration (see CONTRACT). The extinction of the previous contract is sufficient consideration. The question whether there is a novation most frequently arises in the course of dealing between a customer and a new partner ship, and on the assignment of the business of a life assurance company with reference to the assent of the policyholders to the transfer of their policies. The points on which novation turns are whether the new firm or com pany has assumed the liability of the old, and whether the creditor has consented to accept the liability of the new debtors and discharge the old. The question is one of fact in each case. See especially 35 and 36 Viet. c. 41, s. 7, where the Avord " novations " occurs in the marginal note to the section, and so has quasi-statutory sanction. Scotch law seems to be more stringent than English law in the application of the doctrine of novation, and to need stronger evidence of the creditor s consent to the transfer of liability. In American law, as in English, the term is something of a novelty, except in Louisiana, the only State where the civil law prevails. NOVA ZEMBLA, or, more correctly, NOVAYA ZEMLYA (i.e., " New Land "), is a large island, surrounded by many small ones, situated in the ARCTIC OCEAN (see vol. ii., plate xxvi.), and belonging to the Russian empire. It lies be tween 70 30 and 77 N. lat. and between 52 and 69 E. long., in the shape of an elongated crescent 600 miles in length, with an average width of 60 miles, and an esti mated area of 40,000 square miles, separating the Kara Sea on the east from that part of the Arctic Ocean which is often called Barents s Sea. The north-eastern extre mity of Novaya Zemlya lies a little to the west of the meridian of the peninsula of Yalmal, from the extremity of which it is only 160 miles distant. Its southern part, bending towards the south-east, appears as a continuation of the Vaigatch (Vaygach) Island, from which it is sepa rated by the Kara Strait, 30 miles in width, the island itself being separated from the continent by the narrow Ugrian Strait, only 7 miles broad. Novaya Zemlya is cut through about the middle by a narrow winding channel, the Matotchkin (Matochkin) Shar, which also connects the Arctic Ocean with the Kara Sea. While the eastern coast runs as a regular curve, with deeper indentations only in its middle, the western is deeply indented by numerous and in some cases fjord-like bays, studded, like the rest of the coast, with many islands. Amongst the principal on the western coast are several parallel fjords at the southern extremity and the wide bay of Sakhanikha. Then farther north is the Kostin Shar, bounded on the north by Cape Podrezoff, which forms the southern extre mity of Gusinaya Zemlya or Goose Land, in 72 N. lat. ; Moller Bay, 40 miles wide, between Goose Land andBritvin Promontory, has several fjord-like bays, with good anchorages. A broad indent ation between Britvin and Suk- hoi Nos Promon tories, which has received the general name of Marquis de Travers6 Bay, includes several bays with good anchorages for larger vessels. Several Other JMejdusliarslry^I large and deep bays follow until Admiralty Penin sula (75 N. lat.) is reached; of Map of Nova Zembla. these the chief are Krestovaya and Mashigin. Farther on, Nordenskjold s Bay is worthy of notice. Orography and Geology. The interior of Novaya Zemlya is almost unknown ; still, the broad features of its structure can be inferred from data obtained at various points on the coast. Two orographical regions must be distinguished. The first of these, south of lat. 72, appearing as a continua tion of the Pay-Kho mountains, is a plateau of moderate height, with several low parallel ridges (2000 feet) running north-west, and separated by level valleys dotted with numerous lakes. It consists of gneisses and clay-slates, with layers of augitic porphyry (north of Kostin Shav), and thick beds of Silurian and perhaps Devonian limestones, continued on Vaigatch Island, where they are partially covered with Carboniferous deposits. On the north-west it terminates in the low plateau (300 to 400 feet) of Goose Land. The middle and northern parts of Novaya Zemlya, on the other hand, form an alpine region with isolated peaks and a complicated system of spurs and deep valleys, extending even under the sea. Instead of being, as it has been frequently described, a single chain running in the main direction of the island closer to its western coast, it appears to be rather a system of shorter chains running due north-east, and disposed in echelons displaced east wards as they advance towards the north. They terminate seawards in several promontories having the same direc tion ; but the difference of the geological structure on the two sides of the Matotchkin Shar would suggest that it is rather a combination of two longitudinal valleys connected by a transverse cleft than one transverse valley. The highest parts of the alpine region (the Mitusheff Kamefi, 3200 feet; Wilczek, 3900 feet; and other peaks to the west rising perhaps to 4000 and 4650 feet) are in the neighbourhood of this channel ; south of the eastern en-