THE WATER SYSTEMS. 81 



of Imatra, six, versts or four miles below its debouchure 

 from the Saima. Then in a south-easterly, next in a 

 northerly, and lastly in an easterly direction pursuing its 

 course, broken again and again by waterfalls or rapids, it 

 pours its waters into the Ladoga, the largest lake in 

 Europe, into which it pours by two mouths, after a course 

 of about 170 versts, or 126 miles, a little below the town 

 of Hexholm ; and the Ladoga, by the Neva, on which 

 stands St. Petersburg, empties itself into the Gulf of Fin- 

 land and the Baltic. 



' In comparison with this great water-system of South 

 Finland, which often presents the appearance of an inland 

 sea studded with islands, and which makes the country one 

 of the most abundantly watered countries in the world, the 

 water-systems which have not yet been mentioned may be 

 looked upon as very unimportant. Amongst these, how- 

 ever, are the following, which demand notice : 



' 1. The Aurajoki, which demands notice as the most 

 important in an historical respect. It flows through the 

 oldest town in Finland Abo and below the town, near 

 the Fortress of Abo, now partially in ruins, it flows into 

 the Baltic. 



' 2. The streamlet Karis, in Nyland, which falls into 

 the long and narrow gulf near the town of Eknas. This 

 gulf is in all likelihood the waters which the Russians, 

 when in 1311 they undertook a campaign against the 

 Jetnen or Tawaster, called the Kupetcheskia Raeka or 

 Traffic Stream and the Eknas is the Tchornaia Raeka ; 



' 3. The Wanda or Helsingback, on which stood the old 

 Helsingfors, founded by the King, Gustavus Vasa, in 1550, 

 till Queen Christina ordered the town to be removed to 

 its present site, six versts or four miles towards the 

 south-west. 



' 4. The streamlet Borga, which flows past the town of 

 that name. 



'5. Systerbach Sestra the Finnish Rajakoti that is 

 boundary stream which from 1323 to 1617 constituted 



