LAKE LADOGA. 13 



The object was to draw produce to St. Petersburg for 

 exportation ; and in extension of the project of the Ladoga 

 Canal he, in the same year, or shortly thereafter, made 

 another canal by which the Caspian became connected by 

 navigable water channels with the Gulf of Finland and the 

 Ocean ; and boats sailing up the Volga, traversing a canal 

 connecting this river with another, proceeding so far by 

 this and by another canal to the lake of Ilmen, could 

 thence by the Ladoga Canal reach the Neva, whence 

 goods and merchandise might be conveyed by sea to all 

 parts of the world. 



Lake Ilmen, in the Government of Novogorod, inter- 

 secting a town of the same name, is connected with Lake 

 Ladoga by the Volkhoff. The length of the course of this 

 river is about 150 miles. It is deep and rapid, but except 

 when its waters are low, when it forms cascades, it is 

 navigable. It is connected by canal with the Siasi, which 

 flows through the Government of St. Petersburg in a 

 N.N.W. direction, throughout a course of about 100 miles. 



Schlusselburg forms thus a port of departure whence the 

 traveller may proceed by water to the south, to the east, 

 to the north, or to the west. By the canal the traveller 

 may proceed by water to Odessa, the Black Sea, Constan- 

 tinople, the Mediterranean, and thence whithersoever he 

 will, the wide world over. By leaving the Volga, a little 

 beyond Kazan, and ascending the Kama to Perm, a 

 railway journey of 312 miles will bring him to Ekaterine- 

 burg, in Siberia, which is in like manner possessed of 

 wonderful facilities for inland navigation. 



In a sketch of the Hydrography of Finland, in a volume 

 entitled The Forest Lands of Finland, I have narrated the 

 experience of my friend, the Rev. W. Nicolson, agent of 

 the British and Foreign Bible Society, in descending the 

 Ulea River to the Gulf of Bothnia, whence he found his 

 way by coasting steamers to St. Petersburg. It was by 

 this route that he had entered Finland. Embarking at 



