402 
The Hon. Mr. St rang ways on the 
subjected for fire- wood. They consist exclusively of fir and birch, 
and occasionally aspen, the few oaks to be found at Toxova and 
Riabova being attributed, as all those trees are in this part of 
Russia, to the forethought of Peter the Great. Grass is rare, being 
commonly replaced by lichen rangiferinus ; the sand, which here 
contains little or no mixture of clay or lime, produces nothing but 
rye and buckwheat in small quantities. Only the abrupt declivities 
of some of the principal hills, and the banks of a few lakes, present 
scenes, which though certainly picturesque, are of a melancholy 
character. 
Nearly the same picture may be drawn of that portion of the tract 
on the left bank of the Neva, situated to the north and to the east 
of the principal escarpment ; with the exception of those parts arti- 
ficially adorned by the neighbourhood of the Imperial palaces, which 
are all on this side of Petersburg, and by the villas and summer 
residences of its inhabitants. But south of this tract, especially 
within the limestone district, the character of the country changes \ 
large tracts of cultivated land and many populous villages are found 
along all the principal escarpment, and many parts of the country 
behind it ; oaks, though perhaps not natives of the soil, are more 
frequent, and attain their full growth ; even wheat is sometimes 
cultivated ; the wych elm (ulmus montana), and a greater variety of 
plants become common, many of which belong to the Flora of cen- 
tral Europe, while those of the sandy districts before described 
belong principally to that of the north. In the valleys which lie 
upon the limestone and sandstone rocks, may be found many beau- 
tiful and picturesque landscapes. 
If we examine the structure of the terraces and plateaus of which 
the surface of this country is formed, we shall see that they are, in 
fact, not table lands, fig. 3, pi. 29, but large shallow basins, the interior 
