CONTOUR OF THE COUNTRY. 237 
archipelago ; there is the same multitude of islands between 
which the water now compresses itself in strait camals, and 
now spreads itself out in vast basons, which measure often 
many Swedish miles in extent; only here nature presents 
more of a smiling aspect; the dry and bare rocks of the 
archipelago are replaced by islands verdant and wooded ; 
the heights are covered with pine forests of dark green, 
and on the shores are seen villages and cultivated fields. 
‘No country in Europe, and perhaps no country in the 
world, can compare in number of lakes with Finland. It 
is reckoned that they cover 12 per cent. of the whole 
superficies ; but this does not nearly represent the whole 
portion covered by water; there must be added 20 per 
cent. covered by marshes and peat-bogs, for the drainage 
of which nature and man must yet in combination labour 
for centuries. In looking on the map, with these consider- 
ations present to the mind, we are naturally led to the 
conclusion that Finland has been the uneven bed, not yet 
completely desiccated, of a sea which, in retiring, has left 
water in the parts of lowest level. A fact long maintained 
by popular tradition, and one which has received confirma- 
tion from observations continued for more than a century 
past, is that the soil of Finland is being continuously 
elevated above the sea-level. It is calculated. from obser- 
vations of permanent marks on rocks washed by the sea, . 
that this elevation is going on at the rate of about 40 
inches in a century on the coasts of the Gulf of Bothnia 
and at Qvarken, and 24 inches on the coast of the Gulf of 
Finland. 
‘At the same time, if we call Finland a young country, 
in the sense that of the countries with which it is con- 
nected it has been, perhaps, the last of all to be raised 
above the level of the sea, and fitted to serve as a dwelling- 
place for man, it is in this. sense alone that the designation 
can be given,and not in reference to its geological formation,’ 
_Of the general appearance presented by the rivers and 
lakes of Finland ample details have been given; and 
