22 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



sand six hundred and thirty-eight paces in length. This bridge is 

 taken away about the end dtf September, to give the flakes of ice a/ 

 free passage down the river, and is again put together in the spring. 

 There are to be seen on this river a great number of mills erected 

 in boats. 



In describing the rivers belonging to the vast empire of Russia, 

 the NEVA must not be omitted. It issues out of the lake of La- 

 doga, and in its short course is broad, rapid, and navigable; upon 

 islands formed by the different branches of this river, a considerable 

 part of the city of St. Petersburg!!, built by Peter the Great, is 

 erected. Its whole course is no more than forty English miles, and 

 it discharges itself into the gulf of Finland. The Nera is about 

 eight hundred paces broad near St.Petersburgh : but has not every 

 where an equal depth of water, so that large merchant ships are 

 cleared at Cronstadt, and the men of war built at St. Petersburg!! 

 are also conveyed thither by means of certain machines called 

 camels. Beside the Neva, the rivers Fontanca and Moica contribute 

 to form the islands on which the new metropolis stands, which is 

 also watered by several canals ; for in this respect the emperor took 

 his model from Amsterdam. There is but one bridge over the 

 Neva, which is constructed with large flat-bottomed boats, and 

 joins the deck-yard to B.isili Ostrow, or Basil's Island. These are 

 laid across the river in the spring, so as to form a safe and conve- 

 nient passage ; but they are always removed in the autumn, before 

 the frost begins. The only communication between the other islands 

 is either by boats or barks, which cross the water at stated times ; 

 but bridges are built over the Moica and Fontanca, and likewise over 

 ihe canals. St. Petersburgh is much exposed to inundations : in 

 September 1777, one rose to a very great height, and did prodigious 

 injury, especially ta the property of the merchants. 



The DANUBE, the ancient Ister, is the next considerable river hi 

 Europe, iu which quarter it rises and terminates. Its whole course 

 is i-ear fourteen hundred miles. Its source is in Swabia, within a 

 few miles of the borders of Swisserland, latitude 48 N. longitude 

 90 E. whence the Rhine issues ; the direction of the Danube is east' 

 ward, that of the Rhine north-westward. The former intersects 

 Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, and at Vaez, a town in the latter king- 

 dom, turns southward. It divides the bannat of Temesvar from 



