238 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 
nothing must be added here in regard to the hydrography 
of the country ; but in regard to the correlated feature of 
the country—its oreography, some additional information 
may be welcome. 
‘The mountain ranges of Finland’ writes Helm, ‘ have 
few remarkable elevations to show, and as we proceed 
southward the more level does the country become. The 
great Norwegian mountain range, which extends to the 
White Sea, stretches out an area of rocks towards the 
south-east, which divides itself into smaller ridges and 
solitary mountains, such as: Peldvioi, 2000 feet, and 
Quanastuntivri, 1931 feet in height, until at last, in the 
region of the sources of the Tana Fluss, it assumes the 
peculiar form of land ridges called Maanselka, here 
appearing as an elevated plateau, a table land, there 
as sandy steppes, there as wood-covered heights. 
‘The mother ridge, which gives rise to numerous branches, 
two of which stretch away direct to the northern coast of 
the Gulf of Bothnia, proceeds first in an easterly direc- 
tion to the boundary of -the Government of Archangel, 
and thence jt wends its way southward, constituting one 
part of the western boundary of Russia, and extending itself 
in various curves, westward and southward, bounding on 
one side the Province of Easter Bothnia, Karelia, Savalar, 
Tavastland, and Sata Kunder, it becomes gradually less, and 
finally disappears near to the sea in the. district of Chris- 
tinestad. In its long course the Maanselka throws out a 
great many wooded hills and irregular groups of heights, 
and these, with the enclosed sheets of water, form a circlet 
of picturesque scenery around the included country. 
‘Proceeding from the mountainous region of Lapland 
and Haiden we find small plains on the north-west coast 
of the Gulf of Bothnia, but here as yet often broken up 
and interrupted, until at length, at the entrance to Wasa 
Jin, is seen the vast extended fertile plain of East 
Bothnia, bounded on the north, east, and south, by the 
Maanselka and its branches, and here and there towards 
the sea, sown, as it were, with hills, 
