LAKE LADOGA. 18 
The object was to draw produce to St. Petersburg for 
exportation ; and in extension of the project of the Ladoga 
Canal he, in the same year, or shortly thereafter, made 
another canal by which the Caspian became connected by 
navigable water channels with the Gulf of Finland and the 
Ocean ; and boats sailing up the Volga, traversing a canal 
connecting this river with another, proceeding so far by 
this and by another canal to the lake of Ilmen, could 
thence by the Ladoga Canal reach the Neva, whence 
goods and merchandise might be conveyed by sea to all 
parts of the world. 
Lake Ilmen, in the Government of Novogorod, inter- 
secting a town of the same name, is connected with Lake 
Ladoga by the Volkhoff. The length of the course of this 
river is about 150 miles. It is deep and rapid, but except 
when its waters are low, when it forms cascades, it is 
navigable. It is connected by canal with the Siasi; which 
flows through the Government of St. Petersburg in a 
N.N.W. direction, throughout a course of about 100 miles, 
Schlusselburg forms thus a port of departure whence the 
traveller may proceed by water to the south, to the east, 
to the north, or to the west. By the canal the traveller 
may proceed by water to Odessa, the Black Sea, Constan- 
tinople, the Mediterranean, and thence whithersoever he 
will, the wide world over. By leaving the Volga, a little 
beyond Kazan, and ascending the Kama to Perm, a 
railway journey of 312 miles will bring him to Ekaterine- 
burg, in Siberia, which is in like manner possessed of 
wonderful facilities for inland navigation. 
In a sketch of the Hydrography of Finland, in a volume 
entitled The Forest Lands of Finland, I have narrated the 
experience of my friend, the Rev. W. Nicolson, agent of 
the British and Foreign Bible Society, in descending the 
Ulea River to the Gulf of Bothnia, whence he found his 
way by coasting steamers to St. Petersburg. It was by 
this route that he had entered Finland... Embarking. at 
