THE FOREST LANDS AND FORESTRY 

 OF FINLAND; 



WITH NOTICES OF THE FINNISH PEOPLE. 



PART I. 



LAKES AND RIVERS OF FINLAND. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



WITH Finland and its people I have been more or less 

 extensively acquainted for fifty years. In the autumn of 

 1833 I went to Russia to undertake the pastoral charge of 

 the British and American Congregational Church in St. 

 Petersburg. The first evening I spent in that city was 

 spent with a number of friends, Englishmen, Scotchmen, 

 and Americans, who, by engaging in the sale and distribu- 

 tion of the sacred Scriptures and religious tracts in different 

 languages, the support of a school for the children of poor 

 foreigners, of a Dorcas Society for supplying the poor with 

 clothing, of a Magdalene refuge for poor outcasts, and by 

 other like philanthropic work, were seeking to do good ; 

 and in all these benevolent efforts they were encouraged by 

 liberal contributions from the Emperor Nicholas, from the 

 Empress, and from other members of the Imperial Family. 

 The effects of their Christian work were felt from the Gulf 

 of Bothnia to the Sea of Ochotsk, from Finland to 

 Kamschatka. I was received with a brother-like welcome, 

 and made welcome to co-operate with them to my heart's 

 content. 



B 



