The Hon. Mr. Strangways on the Geology of Russia. 13 



Valday Hills. 



The valley of Novgorod is bounded on the south by the ridge of the 

 Valday Hills^ the most considerable regular chain between the Baltic and 

 the Black Sea. It is possible that they may yields in point of elevation^ 

 to the hills which accompany the right bank of the Volga during the mid- 

 dle part of its course ; but as the Valday Hills form the ridge which throws 

 off the waters, on the one side into the southern, and on the other into the 

 northern basins, they make a more important feature in the physical map 

 of Russia. They probably do not exceed eight or nine hundred feet in 

 height ; an inconsiderable elevation for the centre of so vast a country^ and 

 which will seem the more remarkable if we observe the magnitude of the 

 streams which flow on either side from this nucleus. From the western 

 extremity the Diina flows into the Baltic, and the Dniepr into the Black 

 Sea : at a short distance to the eastward rises the Volga, which conveys all 

 the waters of eastern and central Russia into the Caspian. Many inferior 

 rivers flow from the northern slope into the three lakes, Ilmen, Ladoga, and 

 Onega, all which empty themselves by the Neva into the Gulf of Finland. 

 Towards the eastern extremity of the ridge the river Dina* collects all the 

 smaller streams of the northern basin, and flowing to Archangel throws itself 

 into the White Sea. 



The escarpment of the Valday Hills is greatest towards the north. Though 

 sandy, the soil is tolerably good, and the country is generally cleared and cul- 

 tivated. These hills derive their name from the town and monastery of Val- 

 day, on the road from Moscow to Petersburg, and nearly midway between the 

 two cities. The situation of the monastery on an island in the middle of a lake, 

 and surrounded with wood, is wild and picturesque, particularly when viewed 

 from a steep hill on the Borovichy road. Between Valday and Borovichy the 

 hills are steep ; but it is not tifl the deep channel of the Msta lays open their 

 internal formation, that any trace of the limestone or coal, reputed to exist in 

 this tract, makes its appearance. The clean and thriving town of Borovichy 

 is situated on the Msta, just where that river quits the Valday HiUs to enter 

 into the plain of Novgorod. It is noted for the falls or rapids, which in this 



* This river, and that which flows by Riga, are both spelt and pronounced in Russian Dina. 

 The Livonian river I have written above Diina, according to the spelling adopted in the language 

 of the country (German). That which flows into the White Sea I must therefore spell as I have 

 done in the text. Both rivers are often incorrectly spelt Dwina or Dvina. Giildonsfadt, though 

 a German, seems to prefer Dina to Duna, yet by a strange inconsistency calls the lake, which 

 is its source, Dteinez. vol. i. p. 19. 



