398 
The Hon. Mr. St rang ways on the 
inconsiderable to affect it by their occasional irregularities of level. 
The frequency of floods is said to have greatly abated during the 
last century. Its course is remarkably free from islands, except at 
the mouth, there occurring but two or three in a bog at Astrafki, 
above Pella. 
The silt brought down by the Neva is far from being a fertile 
soil ; derived originally from two or three of the poorest strata in 
Europe for agricultural purposes, and lastly from the diluvian 
gravel, which form the banks of the river, in which sand greatly 
predominates. 
Behind these banks, the course of which has been traced above, 
extends a level country on each side of the Neva to a considerable 
distance. On the north, it forms the isthmus between the gulf 
and the lake Ladoga. Its features are easily described. A ridge 
of hills runs due north from the great bend of the Neva at Pella to 
beyond Coltoushy, where it terminates. After an interruption of 
two or three versts, we find the insulated ridge of Biabova 
stretching in the same direction, and after another considerable 
interval, that of Toxova, which extends beyond Vola and Lembala 
to the chain of lakes called collectively the Voxa. A little to the 
south of Toxova, it turns to the eastward, forming the Capsala 
hills,* and is continued behind the marshes of Gesterbeck, sending 
out a small branch to Diboun, and a larger one towards Pargola 
and the lakes of Souzdalskoe : this latter runs parallel to those of 
Coltoushy and Biabova ; and like them, presents its steepest 
escarpment to the west. That of the Corpsala ridge is steepest 
towards the south ; that of Toxova has a declivity nearly equal on 
each side. Thus there are three distinct plains between the lake 
* Spelt in the maps Carop'&elky called commonly Copsala ©r Copsclky. 
