46S 



EUSSIA IN EUEOPE. 



2,000 tons, though the mean burden is only from 150 to ICO tons. Most of 

 these boats are built for a single voyage, after which they are broken up and 

 sold as timber or fuel. Two-thirds of the river steamers ply on the Volga, 

 representing three-fourths of the collective tonnage of all the inland navigation. 



Canals. — Railways. 



Of the 23,240 miles of navigable highways no more than one-sixtieth was 

 represented by canals in 1870; but some of these canals have a commercial 



Fig. 251. — Canals connecting the Baltic and Volga. 



Scale 1 : 5,080,000. 



'E.ofP 



90 Miles. 



importance equal, or even superior, to that of main rivers. Their construction has 

 been greatly facilitated by the marshy or lacustrine nature of the regions about 

 the upper courses of the main streams. The cuttings required to connect the 

 Volga and Dvina by their head-streams have a total length of scarcely 9 miles ; 

 while the Tikhvinskiy Canal, the shortest of those connecting St. Petersburg with 

 the Volga, crosses the crest of the water-parting by a cutting less than 10 miles 



