8 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 
of altitude between this and that of the Gulf of Finland 
is 256 feet, and there is a valley in which is a chain of 
connected lakelets, which, though not the outlet by which 
its waters find their way to the ocean, bas been utilised as 
a channel of communication with the sea by means of 
twenty-eight locks built of granite, which there abounds. 
The canal was constructed for the Government by Erichson, 
a Swedish engineer, at a cost of about £400,000 It was 
opened in 1856; and honour has been done to all meu of 
distinction connected with the accomplishment of the 
undertaking, engineer and emperors—for it was begun in 
the reign of Nicholas, and completed in that of Alexander 
II.—statesmen and patriots, by inscriptions in brass on 
monuments of granite, giving their name, their rank, and 
a brief statement of their achievements. These monu- 
ments vary in shape, and one or more are placed at every 
lock along the line, each commemorative of some one hero 
who had contributed to the execution of the work. 
In proceeding by the canal from Wyborg to Wilman- 
strand, we pass from lake to lake in a continuous chain, 
like that of the lakes of North America; sometimes 
advancing towards the richly-wooded head of a lake, where 
further progress may be thought to be impossible, but 
before the prow of the steamer can reach the shore, a 
small outlet in a corner is seen, and traversing this, in a 
few minutes we find ourselves in another lake still more 
spacious. At length we enter the lower portion of the 
Saima See, and sail through thousands of islands, for, it 
may be, a’ hundred miles, and entering the upper porticn 
of it, we find that the thousand islands have given place 
to a thousand lakes, not in continuous Jine, but confined 
in a net-work of wooded ridges, and branching off on the 
right hand and the left, backwards and forwards, hither 
and thither, and everywhither. 
‘The Saima Canal kas a minimum depth of 83 feet, and 
a minimum breadth of 314 feet, so vessels of tolerable size, 
drawing not more than 6} feet, can navigate it with safety. 
