THE SVIR. 17 
Sermaksi on the Svir, where are large stores for produce 
and a meteorological observatory. Some two hours or 
more brings it to Ladonoi Pole, founded by Peter the 
Great, and formerly a naval dockyard. Here there are 
still extensive bakeries, to which flour is brought from 
great distances, and whence are shipped great quantities 
of eringles, a kind of Russian or Swedish biscuit, made in 
the form of a long roll, the tapering ends of which are 
twisted together so as to form a ring with an expansion 
in the middle. Great quantities of cray fish are caught in 
the neighbourhood, and offered for sale by peasants crowd- 
ing the landing stages where the steamer touches. It is 
situated at what appears to be the confluence of two 
rivers. 
Ladonoi Pole (the field of Lodi) is a place of some 
interest, being the spot where Peter the Great built his first 
galleys in 1702. He superintended their building in 
person, and subsequently employed them in taking the 
fortress of Schlusselburg from the Swedes. A monument 
in cast iron marks the site of a house in which Peter 
resided. 
In four hours or more is reached Vajnee, where appar- 
ently the rafts of timber are made up. This is brought 
hither in floats made in three tiers of twenty logs each, 
bound firmly tegether. Here ten such are connected in a 
long line, two oar-like helms or helm-like steering oars are 
attached to each end of the long raft, and either end may 
become stem or stern, or alternately the one or other, 
Ten or twelve women, with one man amongst them to 
direct their movements, ply those on the foremost float, 
so as to keep the whole in the current, or to move it out 
of the way of steamers advancing in au opposite direction, 
and one or two men do the like with those in the stern. 
The women whom I saw thus employed were cleanly 
dressed, and looked healthy and strong, neither coarse- 
featured nor inelegant in form. Throughout the whole 
region women are extensively employed in rowing the 
boats plying on the river, and also in piling firewood. 
C 
