PART III. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER I. 

 CONTOUR OF THE COUNTRY. 



IN the opening chapters there has been given some informa- 

 tion in regard to the lakes and rivers of Finland, from which 

 not a little may be gathered in regard to the appearance of 

 the country, and in regard to its contour. But the 

 subject was then looked at more in its hydrographical 

 than its geographical aspect; and it is the latter which 

 here comes under consideration. 



Finland is washed throughout a great extent of its 

 circumference by the sea, the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic, 

 and the Gulf of Bothnia, and it is throughout its eastern 

 boundary conterminous with Russia, to which it is annexed. 

 Boundaries of kingdoms having been determined in many 

 cases by considerations altogether independent of natural 

 boundaries suggested by river-courses, or by what to 

 students of physical geography may seem more natural 

 still^ the watershed of the elevated ridges which deter- 

 mines the river basins, the traveller finds often in the 

 speech and appearance of the people, and of the houses 

 and villages, the first, and sometimes the only intimation 

 that he has passed from the territory of one government 

 into the territory of another ; and it may be, that in the 

 northern portion of this boundary line, the traveller may 

 meet with little else to let him know, when he has crossed 

 it unintentionally or of design, that he has passed to or 



