318 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



at a point opposite to where they entered. Such are the principal lakes of Switzerland, 

 and the Scandinavian peninsula, of Ladoga and Onega in Russia, and the Lake Baikal 

 in Southern Siberia. The latter is the Holy Sea of the Russians, the largest body of fresh 

 water on the eastern continent, and the largest of all mountain lakes. It lies embosomed 

 in the ranges which form part of the northern rampart of the high central table-land 

 of Asia, and is supposed to be not less than 1200 miles in circumference, occupying 

 a space more than equal to the half of Scotland. Its principal tributary, among upwards 

 of 160, is the Selinga, from the south, which has a course of 700 miles, and drains a 

 country not inferior in extent to the whole of Great Britain ; and through a narrow 

 and deep crevice in the mountains on the north-west it discharges its surplus waters 

 by the Lower Angura, which joins the Yenesei, and is conducted to the Arctic Ocean. 

 Naturalists have been unable to account for the existence of the salmon, the seal, and 

 a kind of sponge, in the fresh water of the Baikal, otherwise than by supposing that 

 in some remote age it was connected with the northern sea. To the same class the 

 large inland seas of Canada belong, which form a chain of magnificent fresh-water 

 expanses, upon the smallest of which frigates of the first magnitude have sailed, war 

 been waged, and whose surface is tempest-tost like the ocean. The river St. Louis 

 enters Lake Superior, the first of the chain in point of size, or reckoning from the 

 west, besides an immense number of nameless streams from the surrounding country, 

 where dense woods and long-continued frosts prevent evaporation from carrying off 

 any large quantity of the superficial waters. The surplus tide of Lake Superior, 

 which has a circumference of 1750 miles, passes by river channels into the Huron, 

 Erie, and Ontario Lakes, which, together with Lake Michigan, form one of the most 

 important inland water-communications of the globe. Scarcely inferior to these in 

 size are the lakes to the north, which occupy the fur countries of America, and occur 

 in chains. The communication is direct from 55 N. lat. in a north-westerly course, 

 through Deer, Wollaston, and Athabasca Lakes, to the Great Slave and Bear Lakes, a 

 distance of near 2000 miles, only interrupted by falls and rapids in the connecting rivers. 

 From the eastern extremity of the Great Slave Lake another chain extends in a north 

 easterly direction, which Captain Back traversed to the Polar Sea in his celebrated 

 expedition in search of Captain Ross. Through great part of the year these lakes are 

 ice-bound, adventurous travellers and the fur traders commonly passing over their 

 frozen surface in dog-sledges. This is the case with the north European and Asiatic 

 lakes, across. which an active commerce is carried on in the winter season. But some 

 defy the rigour of the climate to bind up their waters, owing to their depth, or peculiar 

 agitations to which they are subject. Loch Ness, in Scotland, never freezes ; and though 

 ice is found in the bogs and morasses around Lake Baikal, even during the heat of 

 summer, it does not cover up the lake itself before the middle or close of December. 



Passing from this arrangement of lakes into systems, we proceed to glance at a few of 

 the more striking peculiarities which characterise them indifferently. Floating islands, 

 in several instances of considerable size, are found in some of the lakes of Scotland, Ire 

 land, Sweden, Germany, and Italy. We have an account of one in the latter country in 

 the following letter addressed by Pliny to Gallus. It is only necessary to remark, that 

 the lake Vadimon, the scene of the phenomenon, is now the Lago di Bassanello. 



" Those works of art or of nature, which are usually the motives of our travels, are 

 often overlooked and neglected, if they happen to lie within our reach ; whether it be 

 that we are naturally less inquisitive concerning those things which are near us, while 

 our curiosity is excited by remote objects ; or because the easiness of gratifying a desire 

 is always sure to damp it ; or, perhaps, that we defer, from time to time, viewing what 

 we know we have an opportunity of seeing whenever we please. Be the reason what it 



