18 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



for effect, occupying prominent positions in the landscapes 

 seen from a considerable distance as they are approached 

 by the river. 



There is not a lack of trees ; but these do not constitute 

 a characteristic feature of the scenery. On the north bank 

 of the river, the land a mile or more in breadth, has 

 been sold or ceded to private parties, Russian communes, 

 German colonies, and Finnish villagers, but beyond this is 

 a forest, belonging the Imperial Domains, 160 square 

 versts in extent, preserved for the chase, where bears, 

 wolves, elks, blackcock, capercailzie, and ptarmigan 

 constitute the principal game. While this forest on the 

 right bank, commencing a little distance from the river, 

 but not seen from it in general, has been preserved, and 

 may be said to extend almost continuously from the 

 Finnish frontier to the Ural Mountains and Siberia, with 

 what was once a forest, I may say, in continuation of this 

 on the opposite bank of the Neva, it is otherwise. 



Along the left bank of the Neva, which at no distant 

 period was richly wooded, the woods have been extensively 

 destroyed, sometimes by forest fires, sometimes otherwise. 

 The agricultural operations adopted on both banks have 

 in many cases, perhaps in most, been the following : The 

 ground has been cleared of the stumps and roots, which, 

 after being piled and thus dried, have been used as fire- 

 wood ; the ground then roughly ploughed, and, though all 

 hillocks and hollows, has been sown with oats or rye, 

 generally the former, and a remunerative crop, though not 

 abundant, has been obtained. The stubble has then been 

 ploughed in, and the ground in steep furrows exposed to the 

 influence of the weather. In early spring it has been again 

 ploughed, harrowed, and levelled ; and potatoes, planted 

 with appropriate manure. For two or three years there- 

 after oats, barley, or rye, are grown, but the rye, not being 

 suitable for malting, can only be used in the manufacture 

 of pearl barley, for which there is no great demand; with 

 the last crop, the field is laid down in Timothy grass and 



