51 



side of the road were hills, the continuation of those of Finland, which 

 pass into the government of Olonetz, but fall away towards the 

 south till they present an altitude not exceeding 420 feet above the 

 level of the country around. The surface of the hills seen from this 

 point is covered with forests, which consist of four different kinds of 

 trees, intermixed in varying proportions fir, pine, birch, and aspen. 

 The height of these trees, judging by the eye, seemed to be low compared 

 with like vegetable productions. The only impression I have retained of 

 the course of the whole journey to Petrozavodsk with such opportu- 

 nities of observation as I had, was a feeling that I had gotten into a 

 comparatively northern region, and that I must be nearing the polar 

 circle ; granite hills and interminable forests, a stony soil, with abun- 

 dance of waters but a sparse population these are my remembrances 

 of my first acquaintance with the government of Olonetz. 



" Every twenty or thirty versts (14 and 20 miles) there were small 

 villages inhabited by Karrells, a tribe of Finns who have retained 

 the Finnish language, but in every other respect they are like the 

 population from Novgorod found in the south and east and in parts 

 of the central portion of this government. 



" Speaking generally, the first acquaintance of one with the country 

 leads to the conclusion that the government of Olonetz is as poor in 

 works employing human industrial labour as it is rich in natural pro- 

 ductions, amongst which the first place must be assigned to those of 

 the forests. In Petrozavodsk I was enabled to collect from records by 

 officials who had formerly the management of the forests, and of all 

 matters relating to the country, information of which the following is 

 a summary. 



"The government of Olonetz lies between 60 21' and 65 Q 16' 1ST. 

 Lat., and 47 21' and 59 36' E. from the meridian of Faro, corre- 

 sponding to about 309 and 409 E. of Greenwich. It has an area of 2,785 

 square geographical miles, or 14,026,320 desatins. Of this area 

 forests cover approximately ten millions of desatins, or five-sevenths of 

 the whole. After deducting 257,000 desatins of arable land, and 

 88 desatins of pasture land, the rest is composed of rivers, lakes, 

 swamps, and other unproductive places. The whole population, 

 including both sexes , amounts to 301,290; consequently there is for 

 each man 47 desatins of surface, consisting of 



1-14 desatins of arable and pasture land, 



35' L 9 of forests; and 



10-67 of lake and river. 



" This proportion of the population to the area is indicative of the 

 poverty of the territory. The forests belonging to the Imperial 

 Domaines measure 8,774,419 desatins and 1,048 square fathoms, or 



