FINLAND: LAKES. 



213 



Fi<^. 104. — Lake Hoytiainen. 



Accordin»? to Krapotkin. Scale 1 : 460,000. 



it ha.s retained the appearance of a region still in process of formation, and scarcely 

 yet quite suited for the habitation of man. In the south the labyrinth of lakes is 

 such that without a careful study it is impossible to distinguish the limits of the 

 water-partings between the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland and Lake Ladoo-a. 

 These limits are in any case often 

 purely conventional, and in many 

 places are indicated by simple 

 marshes, draining to one or other 

 of the surrounding seas. The 

 rivers are little more than con- 

 tinuous chains of lakes, so that 

 "the embiyology of streams" can 

 nowhere else be better studied. 



Lake Enare, or Inara, pro- 

 bably the largest in Finland, 

 lies beyond the lacustrine region 

 proper, in the extreme north of 

 Lapland, and drains through the 

 river Pasvik to the Yaranger- 

 fiord. But it is so little known 

 that the estimates of its area vary 

 by over 400 square miles. Saïma, 

 or Saimaa, the largest in Finland 

 proper, would far exceed even 

 Enare in size, were all the basins 

 to be included which directly 

 communicate with it through 

 broad channels. This lacustrine 

 system, which drains to Lake 

 Ladoga, occupies nearly the 

 whole of South-east Finland, and 

 by a few simple cuttings across 

 rocky isthmuses it might be 

 easily connected with other water 

 systems draining south to the 

 Gulf of Finland. Since 1856 

 Saïma has in this way been con- 

 nected with the gulf, thus giving 

 access to the heart of the country.* 



Although, owing to the slight elevation of the interior, the falls and rapids are 

 necessarily few, and relativelj^ unimportant, some of them may compare with those 

 of Scandinavia, if not in height and volume, at all events in their ruirsred 



* Area of principal lakes (in square miles) : — Enare. 980 ; Saïma, 670, but including the Kallavesi, 

 Enovesi, and Pihlavesi, 2,998; Paiyanne, 609; Pyhaselka-Orivesi, 440. 



<i 



Reclaimed Land. Present extent New Islands. Old Islands, 

 of Lake. 

 ■ 5 Miles. 



