CHAPTER II. 
LAKE LADOGA. 
Lake Lapoca is the terminal reservoir of the waters 
drained off from Finland by the Saima See and the Falls 
of Imatra, and the reservoir of waters drained off by other 
water-courses and water systems in the north, and the 
east, and the south, where all these waters are collected, to 
be thence discharged by the Neva, and conveyed by it to 
the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic, and thence by the 
Katigat and the Skagar Rack into the German Ocean and 
the Atlantic beyond. 
Lake Ladoga is the largest lake in Europe: its length 
from north to south is 138 miles, and its greatest breadth 
90 miles, the area of the lake is 6,800 square miles, It 
contains several islands, and numerous rocks and sand- 
banks, which render the navigation of it dangerous. It is 
fed by about sixty tributary streams, the principal of 
which are the Volkhov and Siasi on the south, and the 
Svir, which connects it with Lake Onega in the Govern- 
ment of Olonetz. The dangerous character of the lake, 
‘and the frequency and violence of its storms, induced 
Peter the Great to begin the formation of a canal from 
Schlusselburg to Novaia Ladoga, on the Volkhov, which 
was completed in 1732. Additional canals to extend the 
means of communication were dug under the direction of 
Catherine II. The Ladoga Canal, 70 miles in length, and 
74 feet in breadth, forms with the Siasi and Svir canals, a 
continuous line round the south and south-east sides of 
the lake. : - 
