21 
OUTLINES AND DRAINAGE OF CENTRAL RUSSIA. 
— such line being at the same time coincident with the main elevation of the Valdai 
Hills. As geographers we may observe, that this line is parallel to the axis of the 
great Scandinavian chain, whilst as geologists we can show in the sequel, that 
along the minor as well as along the major elevation, the older palaeozoic rocks 
only have been upheaved and affected. It was, in truth, an acquaintance with the 
peculiar nature of this long and low Russian watershed which enabled that illus- 
trious sovereign Peter the Great to unite these north and south water basins by 
canals, and thus to secure to his country such important commercial advantages 
and so much internal power 1 . 
Since the Valdai Hills lie at no great distance from the Baltic Sea, it is evident 
that the streams which flow from them to the north and fall into that sea must 
have much shorter courses than those which flow to the south. Thus the Diina, 
the Msta and Volkof have comparatively rapid descents ; whilst the Volga, which 
rises on the southern slopes of these heights, runs its tortuous course for about two 
thousand five hundred miles before it debouches into the Caspian. 
It might, therefore, be supposed that this south-flowing stream, having to glide 
over an immense space of ground of little elevation, must necessarily afford much 
1 Of the few heights which we have ventured to mark upon our Map, those which have been deter- 
mined by the barometrical observations of Colonel Helmersen, Count Keyserling and others, are, of course, 
to be viewed as approximations only. In one district (Livonia) we have, indeed, been provided with the 
means of inserting some correct altitudes, as determined by trigonometrical survey conducted under the 
direction of our distinguished friend the Imperial Astronomer Struve ; but even in this instance we can, on 
the scale of our map, do no justice to his most important triangulation, which having been carried along the 
Baltic provinces, is now in the act of being extended to Southern Russia along the Polish frontier. Other 
triangulations having been already carried over Finland, with the certainty of their being extended, 
through the cooperation of the Swedish Government, to Cape North, the Imperial Government will, 
through the survey of M. Struve, have obtained the renown of measuring an arc of the meridian of the 
earth of much greater extent than any which has been executed either by the French or English Govern- 
ments. For the Livonian triangulation, see “ Resultate der Astronomisch-trigonometrischen Vermessung 
Livlands, von W. Struve, Mem. de l’Acad. des Imp. Sciences, St. Petersburgh, 1844." (See also Address 
to the Royal Geographical Society of London, 1845.) The southern portion of the Russian survey 
above alluded to, is conducted by General Tenner, who has recently communicated to M. Struve and the 
Imperial Academy, 168 elevations in the Western governments. In a letter to Mr. Murchison, M. Struve 
makes the important remark, that throughout more than 12 degrees of latitude, the greatest elevations are 
everywhere nearly the same, or about 1000 English feet above the Baltic ; and that one point only, near 
Kremenetz, has a height of 1328 feet, the maximum level, probably, of the western governments between 
the Gulf of Finland and the Black Sea. This last observation is of geological and geographical importance, 
in marking the western extremity of the granitic steppe of Volhynia and Podolia, and the high grounds 
from whence the rivers Dnieper, Bogh, Dniester and Bug take their rise (see Map, PI. VI.). 
