399 
Geology of the Environs of Petersburg . 
and the gulf ; gradually rising in level towards the eastward.* 
The country is thinly inhabited, being covered with forest, bogs, 
and marshes ; the soil poor and sandy. 
Behind the south bank there extends also a boggy plain, for the 
most part covered with coppice wood, from five to ten versts in 
breadth. From this rises a well defined but not lofty escarpment, 
which may be traced throughout the whole of this part of the 
district under consideration. Its general course is from west to 
east, till at Palcova, a village about thirteen versts south of 
Petersburg, the hill of that name, which forms a prominent feature 
in the escarpment, turns suddenly to the south-east, and the ridge 
is continued in that direction (with a few irregularities, to be 
described hereafter) to the village of Fedorovsky ; thence across the 
great Moscow road, nearly eastward, to a little above Nicolskoe on 
the Tosna : further eastward, it skirts in like manner the southern 
bank of the Neva and of the lake Ladoga, always at a few versts 
distance. It is interrupted by the denudations of the Strelca and 
of the Ligovca, in its western half, and by those of the Slavenca, 
flshora, and Jossna, in its eastern. The only ill defined part is 
between the hills of Coirova and that of Cargasary, but it is of 
small extent ; this may perhaps be connected with a remarkable 
change in its structure, which takes place in that part of it. 
A chain of low rising grounds may be traced west of Coirova in 
continuation of this line ; but, as will be seen hereafter, has no 
claim to the name of an escarpment, considered either geologically 
or topographically. They pass along the wood and village of 
* Of these three plains, that of Lakhta is raised but little above the level of the gulf; 
that which is east of Riabova but little above the lake. The difference of level between 
the lake and the gulf is said to be eighty-three feet. 
+ The letters sh in Ishora, are to be pronounced hard, like s ot 2, in the words 
vision , cohesion , brazier . 
Vol. V. 3 E 
