CONTOUR OF THE COUNTRY. 237 



archipelago ; there is the same multitude of islands between 

 which the water now compresses itself in strait canals, and 

 now spreads itself out in vast basons, which measure often 

 many Swedish miles in extent ; only here nature presents 

 more of a smiling aspect ; the dry and bare rocks of the 

 archipelago are replaced by islands verdant and wooded ; 

 the heights are covered with pine forests of dark green, 

 and on the shores are seen villages and cultivated fields. 



1 No country in Europe, and perhaps no country in the 

 world, can compare in number of lakes with Finland. It 

 is reckoned that they cover 12 per cent, of the whole 

 superficies ; but this does not nearly represent the whole 

 portion covered by water; there must be added 20 per 

 cent, covered by marshes and peat-bogs, for the drainage 

 of which nature and man must yet in combination labour 

 for centuries. In looking on the map, with these consider- 

 ations present to the mind, we are naturally led to the 

 conclusion that Finland has been the uneven bed, not yet 

 completely desiccated, of a sea which, in retiring, has left 

 water in the parts of lowest level. A fact long maintained 

 by popular tradition, and one which has received confirma,- 

 tion from observations continued for more than a century 

 past, is that the soil of Finland is being continuously 

 elevated above the sea-level. It is calculated from obser- 

 vations of permanent marks on rocks washed by the sea, 

 that this elevation is going on at the rate of about 40 

 inches in a century on the coasts of the Gulf of Bothnia 

 and at Qvarken, and 24 inches on the coast of the Gulf of 

 Finland. 



' At the same time, if we call Finland a young country, 

 in the sense that of the countries with which it is con- 

 nected it has been, perhaps, the last of all to be raised 

 above the level of the sea, and fitted to serve as a dwelling- 

 place for man, it is in this sense alone that the designation 

 can be given, and not in reference to its geological formation/ 



Of the general appearance presented by the rivers and 

 lakes of Finland ample details have been given; and 



