346 EUSSrA IN EUEOPE. 



found both in the White Sea and in Lakes Ladoga and Oneg':;. Lake Lache, east of 

 Onega, was formerly inhabited by seals, as is evident from the remains of this 

 cetacean found on its banks. In fact, all the northern waters between those of 

 the A^olga and Lake Bielo present an essentially arctic fauna, the fauna charac- 

 teristic of the great river beginning only at the Sheksna. The contrast is doubt- 

 less due to a change in the form of the basins. The lacustrine system of the 

 Upper Yolga drained till recently to the White Sea, whereas it now flows to the 

 Caspian. In this region lukes and rivers are entangled in one general network, 

 although there are some isolated fresh-water lacustrine basins. 



Water System. — The Dvina and Petchora. 



Althotjgh the lakes draining to the White Sea are at present far inferior in 

 extent to Ladoga and Onega, there are seven of them with areas exceeding 200 

 square miles, the largest being that of Seg, in Oloneiz (481 square miles). The 

 rivers flowing to the west side of the same basin belong geographically to Scandinavia 

 and Finland. The first large stream with a distinctly independent course is the 

 Onega, bearing the same name as the great lake of the Neva basin, as if to com- 

 memorate the fact that it rises in a depression formerly common to all these inland 

 waters. Its present source, Lake Lache, probably at one time communicated with 

 Lake Onega, from which it is still separated only by a partly flooded low-lying 

 district. This lake, with an area of about 139 square miles, has itself been almost 

 filled in, now varying in depth from 6 to little over 12 feet. The navigation of 

 the Onega is obstructed throughout its whole course by reefs and ledges, on which 

 there is very little water in summer. 



But the chief river of North Russia is the Dvina, or Severnaya Dvina — that 

 is, North Dvina — so called in contradistinction to the Western or Lithuanian 

 Dvina. The word itself means " river," like Don and Donau, or Danube, 

 all mere varieties of the same root. The Dvina is a mighty stream, draining an 

 area of 145,000 square miles, and with a total length of 1,020 miles, 

 including the farthest sources of the Yichegda. The largest head-stream, rising 

 near the Urals, is fed by two great afiluents, the Sisolka from the south, and the 

 Vim from the north, the latter communicating by a portage with the Petchora 

 basin. The Vorikva, or Verkva, one of the tributaries of the Vim, flows partly 

 underground, at about 60 miles from its source plunging into a chasm, and 

 reappearing in numerous branches 12 miles farther down. 



The Vichegda, although the longest, is not considered the main branch, for 

 the Dvina takes its name higher up, at the junction of the Sukhona and Yug, 

 southern and western tributaries flowing in the direction formerly followed in 

 their migrations by the Novgorod and Muscovite colonists. At the Yichegda 

 ferry the Dvina is already over half a mile wide, and navigable for large vessels. 

 Lower down, after its junction with the Yaga, Pinega, and numerous other 

 affluents, it spreads out 3 or 4 miles from bank to bank, and although scarcely 

 over half a mile wide at Archangel, it has here a depth varying with the seasons 



