18 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



The difference between the appearance presented by 

 the lower portion, and that presented by the upper portion 

 of the See, is occasioned by a difference in the relative 

 altitude of the land and water. In the portion now 

 under consideration, the ridges connecting higher eleva- 

 tions of land are above the level of the water, in the 

 region previously described, these are covered by the lake, 

 and only the projecting elevations of the land appears 

 above the surface, as islands innumerable. 



The depth of the lake varies, as may be supposed, 

 greatly, in the channel navigated it is at places. 10, 12, 

 20, and even 60 fathoms or more, while there are necks, 

 subaqueous hills and plains, forming shoals, covered by 

 less than G feet of water. 



In winter the whole is covered with one continuous 

 sheet of ice, 1, 2, 3, and 4 feet in thickness, while the 

 snow covers land and water with a fleecy mantle 2, 4, and 

 6 feet in thickness ; and the trees everywhere present a 

 beautiful but sometimes somewhat grotesque appearance, 

 from their being covered with a thick dress of frost- 

 work on every branch and spray. The dead level of the 

 frozen water is then covered with a beautifully laid table- 

 cloth of snow, smooth, clean, and white ; at some places 

 the effect of the wind sweeping over the plain may be 

 seen, but even where it has cleared the ice of its covering, 

 the beautiful sweep of the curve is unbroken, on the island 

 the snow accumulates among the trees to a depth of, say, 

 five feet. Above this sometimes may be seen every twig 

 sustaining what looks like a slice of fleecy snow, two 

 inches thick, but more frequently every twig of birch, and 

 every needle like leaf of the pine and the fir, sparkles in 

 the moonlight or the sunshine, as if covered with jewels, 

 diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls ; and, in many 

 cases, the trees thus bedecked, appearing like a cluster of 

 fountains rising high from some placid basin, reminding 

 one of all that may have been read in boyhood of the 



