THE WATER SYSTEMS. BL 
of Imatra, six, versts or four miles below its debouchure. 
from the Saima. Then in a south-easterly, next in a 
northerly, and lastly in an easterly direction pursuing its 
course, broken again and again by waterfalls or rapids, it 
pours its waters into the Ladoga, the largest lake in 
‘Europe, into which it pours by two mouths, after a course 
of about 170 versts, or 126 miles, a little below the town 
of Hexholm; and the Ladoga, by the Neva, on which 
stands St. Petersburg, empties itself into the Gulf of Fin- 
land and the Baltic. 
‘In comparison with this great water-system of South 
Finland, which often presents the appearance of an inland 
sea studded with islands, and which makes the country one 
of the most abundantly watered countries in the world, the 
water-systems which have not yet been mentioned may be 
looked upon as very unimportant. Amongst these, how- 
ever, are the following, which demand notice :— 
‘1. The Aurajoki, which demands notice as the most 
important in an historical respect. It flows through the 
oldest town in Finland—Abo—and below the town, near 
the Fortress of Abo, now partially in ruins, it flows into 
the Baltic. 
‘2. The streamlet Karis, in Nyland, which falls into 
the long and narrow gulf near the town of Eknis. This 
gulf is in all likelihood the waters which the Russians, 
when in 1311 they undertook a campaign against’ the 
Jemen or Tawaster, called the Kupetcheskia Raeka or 
Traffic Stream and the Eknas is the 'Tchornaia Raeka ; 
‘3. The Wanda or Helsingback, on which stood the old 
- Helsingfors, founded by the King, Gustavus Vasa, in 1550, 
till Queen Christina ordered the town to be removed to 
its present site, six versts or four miles towards the 
south-west. 
‘4. The streamlet Borga, which flows past the town of 
that name. 
‘5, Systerbach—Sestra the Finnish Rajakoti—that is 
boundary stream—which from 1323 to 1617 constituted 
