224 RUSSIA IN EUEOPE. 



but the want of higliways and the severity of the climate prevent the development 

 of the mining industry. Even the fine granite, porphyry, and marble quarries are 

 worked only where the stone can be shij)ped at once for the coast towns. The 

 iron business alone has acquired importance, although the furnaces are mainly 

 supplied with bog-iron ores, of which about 35,000 tons are annually raised. In 

 the south a great many underground mines have been abandoned, and the mineral 

 industry is continually retiring farther north. 



Besides its metal works, Finland has several flourishing spinning and weaving 

 factories and paper-mills, the latter largely supplied, as in Sweden, with the raw 

 material from the forests. Ship-building is also actively carried on, especially on 

 the Gulf of Bothnia, and the mercantile navy of Finland is relatively one of the 

 largest in Europe. The shipping trade has nearly trebled during the last twelve 

 years, and to this must be added a large frontier traffic with Russia through 

 Ijake Ladoga and the Wiborg and St. Petersburg railway. Quantities of German 

 wares are also smuggled across the border, and the old practice of " dumb trade " 

 still survives in several places. The peasantry bringing their farm produce in the 

 steamers across Lake T^adoga for the St. Petersburg market leave it at certain 

 points, ticketed with their names and the amount, returning at a fixed time for 

 the money, without a word being exchanged on either side. 



Railways. — Telegraphs. — Goverî^mknt. 



In the south a line of railway runs nearly parallel with the coast between 

 Wiborg and Hango, with branches to Helsingfors, Abo, and Tammerfors. The 

 system is to be extended north-west to Yasa, and thence to Uleâborg, under the sixty- 

 fifth parallel, and the ground has even been partly surveyed for a projected line to 

 Torneâ, so that in a few years the Swedish and Finnish systems will probably 

 meet on the banks of the Torneâ, near the arctic circle. All the coast towns are also 

 connected by regular steam service, while small steamboats and tugs, penetrating 

 to the heart of the country through the twenty-eight locks of the Saïma Canal, 

 connect Wiborg with Kuopio, and even with Idensalmi, 240 miles in a straight line 

 from the coast, and 300 including the windings. Compared with similar works in 

 Russia, those of Finland are remarkable for their excellence and solidity. A 

 canal 300 miles long has recently been projected to connect the Gulf of Bothnia 

 with the White Sea, by taking advantage of several rivers and the great Lake Top, 

 the Top-ozero of the Russians. The highways are amongst the best in Europe. 



The postal and telegraph services are relatively far more developed than in 

 Russia, as might be supposed from the generally higher standard of education. 

 Yet the public schools are far from numerous, and in 1877 the primary schools 

 were attended by no more than some 20,000 children — the 273 lyceums and 

 secondary schools by 4,250 only. Most of the children learn reading and singing 

 at home, or in the ambulatory schools supported by the communes, and moving 

 every two or three months from hamlet to hamlet. But writing is much neglected 

 in these migrating institutions, and while nearly all the children can read, scarcely 



