242 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



Vuoksi to the Gulf of Finland. This stone is used for 

 laying roads, and to it is attributable the fine condition 

 of the roads in Finland. There are found also in the 

 same lands as the granite porphyroids other allied rocks 

 syenite, diorite, &c. Porphyry, strictly so called, is met 

 with in the Island of Hogland. 



c The layer of mobile earth is composed of the debris of 

 all the kinds of rocks found there, mixed with sand, clay, 

 and vegetable and animal matter. Considerable areas 

 are covered with sand, clay, and gravel, and require from 

 the agriculturist great effort and indefatigable persever- 

 ance to bring them under culture. Other grounds more 

 favourable for culture are composed of clay, or of heath- 

 land mixed with sand, or, what is still better, as in the 

 Government of Wasa, of peat soil or vegetable earth. 

 Layer upon layer of vegetable debris, decomposed and 

 carbonised, are being deposited on the area of marshes, 

 forming peat, which, when drained, becomes firm arable 

 land. The animal kingdom has contributed more sparingly 

 to the formation of the soil ; but on the coast, for example 

 in the N^land, in the environs of Nadentdal, near Abo, 

 in the Island of Aland, and in Central East Bothnia, the 

 ground, at some places to many feet in depth, is formed of 

 the debris of shells belonging to animals still living in the 

 Gulfs of Finland and of Bothnia. There are found also in 

 the interior of the country the remains of animals which live 

 in fresh water. These are varieties of tripoli, composed of 

 the scales of infusoria, in prodigious numbers. The people 

 call this tripoli Mountain Meal ; and in years of dearth 

 they have used it as food, mixing it with flour whereof to 

 make bread/ 



According to Dr Helms, 'The soil of Finland is in 

 the northern part, and more especially in the high- 

 lying portion of it, to some extent sandy, and in every 

 respect more suitable for pasturage than for agriculture. 

 A great part of the coast, however, where the level plains 

 have evidently been at one time a basin of the sea, and 



