PART 111. 
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 
‘0: 
CHAPTER I. 
CONTOUR OF THE COUNTRY. 
In the opening chapters there has been given some informa- 
tion in regard to the lakes and rivers of Finland, from which 
not a little may be gathered in regard to the appearance of 
the country, and in regard to its contour. But the 
subject was then looked at more in its hydrographical 
than its geographical aspect; and it is the latter which 
here comes under consideration. 
Finland is washed throughout a great extent of its 
circumference by the sea, the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic, 
and the Gulf of Bothnia, and it is throughout its eastern 
houndary conterminous with Russia, to which it is annexed. 
Boundaries of kingdoms having been determined in many 
cases by considerations altogether independent of natural 
boundaries suggested by river-courses, or by what to 
students of physical geography may seem more natural 
still—the watershed of the elevated ridges which deter- 
mines the river basins, the traveller finds often in the 
speech and appearance of the people, and of the houses 
and villages, the first, and sometimes the only intimation 
that he has passed from the territory of one government 
into the territory of another; and it may be, that in the 
northern portion of this boundary line, the traveller may 
meet with little else to let him know, when he has crossed 
it unintentionally or of design, that he has passed to or 
