258 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



The Niémen, wliicli is the essentially Lithuanian river, rises in the province of 

 Itlinsk, and skirts on the south the plateau of Upper Lithuania as far as Grodno. 

 Here it trends northwards, and is henceforth navigable for small craft, though 

 much obstructed by numerous rapids. On entering Prussia below Jiirburg, it takes 

 the name of the Memel, and is now 1,000 feet wide, with a probable discharge of 



Fi^. 121.— Bisons oir the Bela-Vkja Forest. 



at least 18,000 cubic feet per second. But it soon ramifies into several shifting 

 branches forming the delta of the Kurische HafF, with a single navigable canal to 

 the port of Memel. 



In Lithuania lakes are very numerous, but mostly of small extent. East of 

 Vilna the rocky plateaux are hollowed into a multitude of basins filled with rain- 

 water, and here and there subdivided into smaller reservoirs by old moraines and 



