324 



EUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



Fig. 173. — Lake Onega. 

 Scale 1 : 2,780,000. 



laid down at the dangerous points. Away from the coast it is generally very deep, 

 740 feet in some places, and in the north the coast is indented by numerous iulets, 

 all running south-east and north-west, and continued towards Lapland by chains 

 of lakes and rivers, with intervening ridges 800 to 1,000 feet high, all running 

 in the same direction. These still partly flooded water-courses are parallel with 

 the Finnish lakes, and their axis follows precisely the same lines as those of the 

 White Sea, from the so-called Gulf of (Jnega to that of Kandalaksha in the 



extreme north-west. Glacial 

 striae have also been traced along 

 these lines, and the âsar, or aelya, 

 run mostly in the same direction. 



Saïma, the largest lake in 

 Finland, is also a tributary of the 

 Ladoga through the "Wuoxen, 

 or Yoksa, noted for the famous 

 falls of Iinatra, the grandest in 

 the whole Neva basin. Even 

 within the present century the 

 Wuoxen has changed its lower 

 course, its present lying some 

 24 miles south of its former 

 mouth near the village of Keks- 

 holm. Heavy rains swept away 

 an isthmus till 1818 separating 

 Ladoga from the long Lake 

 Suvando, which already com- 

 municated with the Wuoxen 

 through a small canal cut by the 

 government of Finland. The 

 outlet thus suddenly created im- 

 mediately lowered the level of 

 Suvando, which shrank to the 

 proportions of a river, and the 

 Wuoxen, almost entirely forsak- 

 ing its former outlet, discharged 



Depth in Fnthoms. 



Under 13. 



Over 27. 



25 Miles. 



south-eastwards through the new 

 bed. But its fluvial form renders it probable that in a previous geological epoch 

 the Suvando had already received the waters of the Wuoxen. 



Like Onega and Peipus, Ladoga was formerly far more extensive even than 

 at present, for its low and almost treeless southern shores consist of clays, sands, 

 and gravels containing large quantities of erratic stones of every size, from simple 

 pebbles to huge boulders. From these low-lying shores the bed of the lake falls 

 imperceptibly towards the deep waters commanded by the granitic cliffs of the 

 north coast. Near some rocky islands it is from 300 to 500 feet deep, sinking to 



