&94 
The Hon. Mr. Strangways on the 
the farthest branch on the north. An alluvial plain extends for a 
short distance beyond the latter gate ; it is probably part of the 
same deposit with the Delta, properly so called, but is at present 
joined to the first bank of the terra firma on this side, without the 
intervention of any branch of the river now remaining. 
This Delta is not entirely built upon. The northern islands, in 
particular, are still low enough to be occasionally flooded, and their 
banks are in some places always marshy. The higher spots alone 
are covered with villas and gardens; the lower parts remain wooded. 
The southern islands, upon which the town stands, are considerably 
higher and drier; to this circumstance is owing its comparative 
freedom from the inundations, fogs, and countless swarms of gnats, 
to which the northern islands are exposed. The eastern extremities 
of the islands are the highest, as being the oldest ; the western still 
low and marshy, being of a later date ; while there exists, continually 
encreasing between them and Cronstadt, a set of submarine islands, 
which form at present a dangerous bar, and will at no distant period 
make a considerable addition to the Delta. 
A tract of low marshy land, in some places nearly two versts in 
breadth, of similar origin to that just described, borders the two 
shores of the gulph to a distance of about forty versts on the 
southern, and twenty-five on the northern coast. It does not 
appear to be every where gaining on the sea ; it is in some places 
stopped by the approach, in a contrary direction, of the sea-sand, 
which not only arrests its progress, but being blown over and 
mixing with the loose and wet ground of the marsh, forms a soil 
firm enough for the growth of trees and for agriculture : examples 
of this posterior accumulation of sand may be seen on the north 
shore near the village of Lakhta, east of the great marsh on the 
