STUDY V. 291 



land by their branching gulfs, and exhibit a new 

 fpecies of beauty, by refleding, in their ftill wa- 

 ters, the openings of the vaUies, the mofly hills, 

 and the pendent firs bending from the promon- 

 tories over their (hores. 



It would be no eafy matter to defcribe the hof- 

 pitable reception which we found in the folitary 

 maniions of thefe northern regions. Their mafters 

 exerted themfelves in every poflible way, to detain 

 us among them for many days together. They 

 fent to the diftance often, of fifteen leagues, invi- 

 tations to their friends and relations, to come and 

 aflîfl: them to entertain us. The days and the 

 nights pafled away in dancing and feftivity. In 

 the cities, the principal inhabitants regaled us by 

 turns. Amidft this hofpitable conviviality, we 

 made the tour of the cities of poor Finland, Wi- 

 burg, Villemanftrand, Fredericklham, Nillot, &c. 

 The caftle of this laft town is fituated on a rock at 

 the difcharge of Lake Kiemen, which furrounds it 

 with two catarads. From it's platforms you per- 

 ceive the vaft extent of that lake. We dined in 

 one of it's four towers, in a fmall apartment illu- 

 minated by windows like gun-ports. It is the very 

 apartment in which the unfortunate Ivan was fo 

 long confined, who defcended from the Throne of 

 the Ruffian Empire, at the age of two years and a 

 half. But this is not the place to expatiate on the 



u 2 influence 



