CHAPTER II. 



LAKE LADOGA. 



LAKE LADOGA is the terminal reservoir of the waters 

 drained off from Finland by the Saima See and the Falls 

 of Imatra, and the reservoir of waters drained off by other 

 water-courses and water systems in the north, and the 

 east, and the south, where all these waters are collected, to 

 be thence discharged by the Neva, and conveyed by it to 

 the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic, and thence by the 

 Katigat and the Skagar Rack into the German Ocean and 

 the Atlantic beyond. 



Lake Ladoga is the largest lake in Europe : its length 

 from north to south is 138 miles, and its greatest breadth 

 90 miles, the area of the lake is 6,300 square miles. It 

 contains several islands, and numerous rocks and sand- 

 banks, which render the navigation of it dangerous. It is 

 fed by about sixty tributary streams, the principal of 

 which are the Volkhov and Siasi on the south, and the 

 Svir, which connects it with Lake Onega in the Govern- 

 ment of Olonetz. The dangerous character of the lake, 

 and the frequency and violence of its storms, induced 

 Peter the Great to begin the formation of a canal from 

 Schlusselburg to Novaia Ladoga, on the Volkhov, which 

 was completed in 1732. Additional canals to extend the 

 means of communication were dug under the direction of 

 Catherine II. The Ladoga Canal, 70 miles in length, and 

 74 feet in breadth, forms with the Siasi and Svir canals, a 

 continuous line round the south and south-east sides of 

 the lake. 



