GEOGRAPHY, TRAVEL, ARCHITECTURE 



573 



improved plan. The Empress Elizabeth did 

 much to improve the city; it is, however, chiefly 

 indebted to Catharine II. for its regularity and 

 architectural splendor; and the improvements 

 under Nicholas and Alexander II. have made it 

 one of the finest of European capitals. Popula- 

 tion, 1.429.000. 



Suez Canal, a great artificial channel cut- 

 ting tin- isthmus of Suez, and thus forming a 

 A ay between the Mediterranean and the 



a; was planned and undertaken by the 

 French engineer Lesseps, through whose untir- 

 ing efforts a company was formeo! and the neces- 



ipital raised; occupied ten years in the 

 construction (1859-69), and cost some twenty 

 million pounds; from Port Said on the Medi- 

 terranean to Suez at the head of the Red Sea 

 the length is about 100 miles, a portion of which 

 lies through Lakes Menzaleh, Ballah, Timsah, 

 and the Bitter Lakes; as widened and deepened 

 in 1886 it has a minimum depth of twenty-eight 

 feet, and varies from 150 to 300 feet in width; 

 tralfie is facilitated by electric light during the 

 night, and the passage occupies little more than 



-four hours; has been neutralised and 

 exempted from blockade, vessels of all nations 

 in peace or war being free to pass through; 

 now the highway to India and the East, shorten- 

 ing the voyage to India by 7,600 miles; three- 

 fourths of the ships passing through are Eng- 

 lish; an annual toll is drawn of closeon three 

 million pounds, the net profit of which falls to 

 be divided amongst the shareholders, of whom, 

 -nee ls7.">. the British Government has been one 



of the largest. 



Superior, Lake, the extreme west and 

 \tensive of the Great Lakes of North 

 America, being the largest body of fresh water 

 in the Western Hemisphere. Its length, east 

 to west, is about 360 miles, with a mean 

 breadth of about eighty miles, so that its area 

 may be taken at about 28,600 square miles. 

 The mean depth is estimated at 900 feet, and 

 the height of its surface at about 640 feet above 

 the Atlantic. It receives upward of fifty rivers, 

 t none is of much importance except the St. 

 iiich enters at its southwest extremity, 

 the Hiviere au Grand Portage. During the 

 Iting of the snow, these and the other rivers 

 into the lafce vast Quantities of sand. 

 Ider stones, and drift timber*. It disc! 

 itself at its eastern extremity into Lakes Huron 

 and Michigan, by the river and fall- o| St. Mary. 

 This lake embosoms many large and well-wooded 

 islands, the chief of which is Isle Royal. Toward 



each extremity the lake contracts m width, and 

 M' the |o\\.-r end terminates in a bay which tails 



into the outlet, the St. MM al the two 



idlands oi : n the north 



and 1'oint Iroquois on the south. Thence to 

 ith of the St. Mary's a' .ron is 



miles. | ; -ion of th; 



1 twenty IN.I.- below its source at 



the Falls of St. I as the place . 



Ilionly called. Saul! Si Here I 1 



descends in a I "t rapid* extending 



Mirths <f a mile, from eighteen to : 

 t. the fall varying with the stage <>t tli- 



Buperior. 

 A ship canal has been constructed past the 



falls by the United States Government, so that 



now the lake is accessible to vessels from the 



Atlantic Ocean. The water of Lake Superior, 



remarkable for its coldness, purity, and trans- 



' parency, is inhabited by many kinds of fish, 



[among which are the delicious white fish and 



the gray trout. 



Sweden (Swedish, Sverige), a kingdom of 

 Northern Europe, comprising, with Norway and 

 Lapland, the whole of the Scandinavian Penin- 

 sula, of which it forms the east, south, and most 

 important portion; having northeast, Russian 

 Finland; east and south, the Gulf of Bothnia 

 and the Baltic; southwest, the Sound. Catte- 

 gat, and Skagerrack; and west and north, Nor- 

 way, from which it is, for the most part, divided 

 by the great mountain chain of Scandinavia. 

 Length, north to south, 950 miles; average 

 breadth about 190 miles; area, 172,876 square 

 miles; population, estimated at 5,162,918. Cap- 

 ! ital, Stockholm ; population, 295,789. 



Sweden is divided into three principal regions: 

 j Gcethland (Gothia) in the south ; Sweden proper, 

 | occupying the center; and Norland (by far the 

 largest part), comprising the remainder. These 

 three regions are again subdivided into twenty- 

 four lans, or districts. Sweden is mountainous 

 in the west, but, in general, flat; and it is re- 

 markable that along the whole road, from Got- 

 tenburg in the west to Stockholm in the east, 

 there is not a single acclivity of consequence till 

 within a few miles of the latter. 



The climate is less severe than might be ex- 

 pected in so high a latitude. The summers are 

 hot, and spring is almost unknown. In the 

 north snow covers the ground for five or six 

 months in the year; and the west coasts are 

 milder and more humid than the east. 



The domestic animals are the same as those 

 of North America. The others are hares and 

 foxes, beavers, wolves, and. 'in the cold prov- 

 inces of the north, bears, the Inning, and the 

 reindeer. Water fowl are abundant and the 

 mosquitoes are as troublesome as they are in 

 tropical count r; 



Only about a fiftieth part of the country is 

 cultivated. Agriculture is in a very backward 

 state, but has been recently much improved. 

 Apple, pear, and cherry trees grow but lan- 

 guidly; while berries of many different kinds 

 are produced spontaneously and spread lux- 

 uriantly. Wheat succeeds only in the sou 1 1 MTU 

 provinces; oats are raised more generally, and 

 in larger quantities; but rye and barley ;lre the 

 kinds of grain most frequently met wi'tl. 

 manufact uring industries include those connected 

 with iron, steel, wooden goods, woolens, cottons, 

 silks, refined sugar, leather paper, spirits, etc. 

 roater part of the trade is with Great 

 Britain and < lermany. 



S\\ Itzerlaiid, a west-central repni 

 Europe, bounded on the north bv Haden. \\urt 

 . and Bavaria, cast by the Tyrol, south 

 by It.iK. ; ,nd west and northwest by France. 

 Maximum length from east to west, 210 miles; 

 breadth. 1 10 miles. This the most mountain- 

 ous country in Europe, has the Alps f< 

 the whole of its southern and eastern frontiers. 

 besides extending its ramified chains over the 

 greater part of its interior. The most level 



