22 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



These may be reached now most conveniently by 

 steamer from Wyborg to Rattigarvi, one of the stations 

 or locks on the Saima Canal, and thence by land con- 

 veyance. I have been informed that there is now a 

 tramway between Rattigarvi and the Falls. I visited 

 them along with a party of friends in 1860, before the 

 canal was open for passenger traffic. We proceeded from 

 St. Petersburg by steamer to Wyborg, and in the cool of 

 the evening we started in a caleche for Imatra. We 

 reached the Falls about three o'clock in the morning. It 

 was the last day of July, and being near the summer 

 solstice, it was light all night. We had travelled through 

 a lovely country; there was hill and dale, woods and 

 water; and we had good horses and excellent roads. 



After a hurried look at the Falls, I went to bed, and by 

 six o'clock I was again at the water side. The forenoon 

 was given to botany, to entomology, and to rest, some of 

 us gathering flowers, while one, with the occasional aid of 

 others, was catching butterflies, and another was taking 

 pencil sketches of the scenery around. In the afternoon 

 we visited a waterfall about four miles lower down, where 

 the river empties itself into a lake. After tea, we drove 

 to a ferry some three miles above Imatra, where we crossed 

 the stream, caleche and horses and all, and we drove along 

 the other side of the river to see the Falls from that side, 

 whence only a sight of the whole at once can be obtained. 



The river is like the Niagara, a stream carrying the 

 water from an upper to a lower lake, and these are parts 

 of a chain of lakes, the level of each of which is lower than 

 that of the one immediately above it. Here the upper 

 lake is a prolongation of the Saima, which, with its 

 ramifications and connected lakelets, may be said to 

 divide with the land, and share between them, the whole 

 extent of Finland. 



Like the Falls of Niagara, the Falls of Imatra present an 

 appearance differing greatly from the conception generally 

 formed of a waterfall ; but this it does in a different way. 

 In the Falls of Niagara the immense stretch of the fall in 



