A new approach to estimate the composition of cosmic rays is proposed. It is found that the zenith angle distributions and muon components of extensive air showers observed by the Yakutsk and AGASA arrays for energies E > 10 19 eV and E > 4 × 10 19 eV differ from each other. It is suggested that the primary cosmic rays at E > 4 × 10 19 e V are heavier than those at E ∼ 10 19 eV . In our method we selected one variant to estimate the shower energy from two variants, as suggested by physicists of the SUGAR array. According to the “Hillas-E” model, the SUGAR array has detected 8 showers with energy E > 10 20 eV .