THE SVIR. 17 



Sermaksi on the Svir, where are large stores for produce 

 and a meteorological observatory. Some two hours or 

 more brings it to Ladonoi Pole, founded by Peter the 

 Great, and formerly a naval dockyard. Here there are 

 still extensive bakeries, to which flour is brought from 

 great distances, and whence are shipped great quantities 

 of cringles, a kind of Russian or Swedish biscuit, made in 

 the form of a long roll, the tapering ends of which are 

 twisted together so as to form a ring with an expansion 

 in the middle. Great quantities of cray fish are caught in 

 the neighbourhood, and offered for sale by peasants crowd- 

 ing the landing stages where the steamer touches. It is 

 situated at what appears to be the confluence of two 

 rivers. 



Ladonoi Pole (the field of Lodi) is a place of some 

 interest, being the spot where Peter the Great built his first 

 galleys in 1702. He superintended their building in 

 person, and subsequently employed them in taking the 

 fortress of Schlusselburg from the Swedes. A monument 

 in cast iron marks the site of a house in which Peter 

 resided. 



In four hours or more is reached Yajnee, where appar- 

 ently the rafts of timber are made up. This is brought 

 hither in floats made in three tiers of twenty logs each, 

 bound firmly together. Here ten such are connected in a 

 long line, two oar-like helms or helm-like steering oars are 

 attached to each end of the long raft, and either end may 

 become stem or stern, or alternately the one or other. 

 Ten or twelve women, with one man amongst them to 

 direct their movements, ply those on the foremost float, 

 so as to keep the whole in the current, or to move it out 

 of the way of steamers advancing in an opposite direction, 

 and one or two men do the like with those in the stern. 

 The women whom I saw thus employed were cleanly 

 dressed, and looked healthy and strong, neither coarse- 

 featured nor inelegant in form. Throughout the whole 

 region women are extensively employed in rowing the 

 boats plying on the river, and also in piling firewood, 



C 



