seas, lakes, and rivers, which diffuse cold and unwholesome mists. The most central lake in the country is the Payana, or the Peaceable;' it is about seventy-two miles in length, and thirteen in breadth. The lake of Saima on the east, which is crowded with islands, is still larger. It descends by six cataracts to the Tornea, which carries its waters into the Ladoga lake. The valleys between the hills are fertile, and vegetation decreases only towards the highest north. The coasts of the Bothnian and Finland Gulf are thickly strewn with granite and limestone rocks, and in some places present a labyrinthine archipelago of little islands. The climate varies from the rigorous polar climate to a more temperate one, which enjoys only one month of spring and two months of autumn, with a brief but frequently very hot summer; during which the night, usually serene and mild, extends to only four hours, and vegetation is extremely rapid. Agriculture, rearing of cattle, and fishing, are the principal occupations of the inhabitants. The harvest, consisting chiefly of barley and rye, sometimes yields an exportable surplus. In the interior of the country there is good timber for marine purposes. Granite is the principal mineral in this district. Iron was once worked in Finland Proper, but the Finlanders now import that metal from Sweden. A great quantity of nitre is made in this country. The country has good harbours; but they cannot be extensively used, as the long winter detains ships six months in harbour. In winter the transport by sledges affords an easy and rapid communication. The principal religion is the Lutheran. Mr James mentions a singular custom as existing at Abo. The prevalent religion here, as in Sweden, is the Lutheran. "The solemnization of marriages takes place only once a year, and that on a fixed day in the teeming autumn. Before this time arrives, the expectant lover is not permitted, by the custom of the land, to pay his addresses in person to the object of his wishes. His offer is made by sending a piece of money, that is accepted or not, as the fair one is inclined to approve or reject his suit; but both the conveyance of this token of love, and the whole of the after-ceremonials, are carried on through the intervention of some old woman of the village, whose occupation and calling may seem enviable to some bustling gentlewoman of other countries, being that of a regularly established match-maker." This government is divided into twelve circles, viz. the six ancient circles of Kexholm, Friedrichsham, Serdobol, Viburg, Vilmarstrand, and Neuschlot; and the seven yielded by Sweden, in 1809, viz. Kymmenegard, Tavastehuus, Abo, Kuopio, Vasa, and Uleäborg. The principal towns are Helsingfors and Abo. The latter town was recently almost totally consumed by fire, and the university established there has been removed to Helsingfors. The houses of the Finlanders are usually constructed of fir trees rudely squared by the axe, and laid, with a thin layer of moss between, upon each other; the ends, instead of being cut off, are generally left projecting beyond the sides of the building, and have a most savage and slovenly appearance. The roof is also of fir, sometimes stained red; the windows are frequently cut out with the axe after the sides of the house are raised. Sir John Carr remarks, that the summer burst upon him in this country with fiery fury on the 11th of July, with no earlier precursor than grass and green leaves. On a sudden, the flies, which experience a longer date of existence in the north than in the milder regions of Europe, awake from their torpor with the arrival of the hot weather, and annoy the traveller beyond imagination.

Lapmarks.] The districts called the Lapmarks belong to this province. They were fully ceded to Russia in the peace of Abo. The inhabitants are partly Lapponians and partly colonists. The Lapps are divided into herdsmen and fishermen. Tornea, the chief town of the Lapmarks, contains 660 inhabitants.

Aland Islands.] To this government likewise belongs the group of the Aland Islands. This group lies in the Bothnian Gulf, which they separate, and it might also be said, shut up from the Baltic. The principal island is about 40 miles long, and 30 broad. It contains several lakes, and is fertile in corn. The number of the inhabitants of the whole group is 13,340. There are eighty inhabited, and upwards of two hundred uninhabited. They export wood, coal, lime, butter, and cheese.

3d. Esthonia.] The government of Esthonia has its name from the aboriginal inhabitants, who give it the name of Viroma, or 'border-country.' It has a superficies of nearly 8,680 square miles, and a population of 396,032. Esthonia is in general a flat country, here and there broken by small eminences. The soil is meagre, and watered by no considerable river, excepting the Narva; and the only extensive lake is the Peipus. The climate is temperate, but foggy and unpleasant in summer. The principal occupation of the inhabitants is agriculture and fishing. They export corn, brandy, cattle, butter, tallow, skins, and salt fish. The inhabitants are Esthonians, Swedes, and Germans, chiefly professing the Lutheran religion. It is divided into four circles, viz. Reval, Hapsal, Vesenberg, and Veissenstein. The chief town is Reval, which lies in a small bay of the Finnish Gulf, and contains 15,000 inhabitants. The islands of Dagü, Vorms, and Nuckü, belong to this government. The former is about 40 miles long, and from 26 to 36 broad, and has a population of about 10,000.

4th. Livonia.] The government of Livonia has its name from its original inhabitants, now nearly extinct. It has a surface of 20,360 square miles, and a population of 737,734 persons, chiefly Lutherans. The country abounds in large woods, lakes, rivers, moors, and heaths; but it contains many fertile spots.40 The Baltic here forms, between the island of Oesel and the continent, the large Gulf of Riga. On the N. E. is Lake Peipus. The principal river is the Düna. The inhabitants are industrious agriculturists. The winter is long and severe, but the climate healthy. The chief productions are corn, flax-seed, and timber. The servitude of the peasants was abolished in 1818. It is divided into five circles, viz. Riga, Venden, Dorpat, Pernau, and Arensburg, or the island of Oesel. The chief towns are Riga," whose commerce was established 650 years ago, by Bremen navigators-Pernau, and Dorpt.

Riga.] Riga is situated upon the Düna, six miles from its mouth, and is well-known as a place of commerce. It chiefly exports corn, hemp, flax, iron, timber, masts, leather, and tallow. Upon the Düna, at this place, is a floating bridge, of which the length is 2,600 feet, and the breadth 40 feet. It is removed during winter. The number of inhabitants is about 36,000: of these upwards of 9000 dwell within the

Some idea may be formed of the ravages committed by wolves in Russia, from the following official account of their devastations in the government of Livonia only. In the year 1823, they devoured-horses, 1841; foals, 1243; horned cattle, 1807; calves, 733; sheep, 15, 182; lambs, 726; goats, 2545; kids, 183; swine, 4190; sucking pigs, 312; dogs, 703; geese, 673.

This name may be translated Ridge.

It has a

fortifications. The garrison generally consists of 1000 men. library containing 12,000 volumes. Dorpt.] Dorpt, 116 miles from Narva, suffered in a most dreadful manner during the wars between the Swedes and the Russians. This ancient town, which belonged, in the thirteenth century, to the Hanseatic League, is situated on the river Embach, being in the high road to the capital, and enjoys a considerable traffic. A university, with a large revenue, was established here in 1802; there are also a library of 30,000 volumes, museums of natural history and antiquities, and a botanic garden. In 1815 there were 37 professors and 310 students. A great annual fair is held here. The population is estimated at 6000. It stands in lat. 58° 22′ 45′′ N., lon. 25° 28′ 9" E. Round Dorpt the country is extremely fertile, so as to have been called the granary of the North. This fertile district stretches as far as Riga, which, however, is surrounded with deep barren sands.

Oesel.] The island of Oesel is 74 miles long, and in breadth 50; and with the islands of Moon and Runa, maintains a population of 34,256 inhabitants. With the exception of Zealand, this is the largest island in the Baltic. It possesses an undulated surface diversified with low hills, lakes, rivers, and woods. The climate is milder than on the adjacent continent. The lower classes are chiefly fishermen.

5th. Courland.] Courland was once a dutchy dependent on the crown of Poland, but was united to the Russian empire in 1795. It receives its name from its ancient inhabitants, the Kures. It has a superficial territory of 12,140 square miles, and a population of 569,000. This is a flat country, interspersed with sand hills, heaths, marshes, and fertile patches. The coasts consist partly of high downs, and are partly flat. The promontory which divides the Baltic from the Gulf of Riga, is the Domess Näss so much dreaded by navigators, before which an enormous sand-bank spreads. The Hüningsberg, an alluvial sand hill, rises here to the height of 700 feet. The principal river is the Düna; the largest lake that of Usmaiten. The soil is generally light and sandy, the climate rude and cold, but not variable, and considerably tempered by its proximity to the ocean. Agriculture and the rearing of cattle are the leading branches of industry. Courland is not divided, like the other governments, into circles, but bailliewicks. The principal towns are Mittau upon the Aa, with a population of 12,000 inhabitants, and Libau, a considerable commercial town at the mouth of the Libau.

CHAP. IX.-GREAT RUSSIA.

THIS is the genuine fatherland of the Russians, and constitutes, in fact, the most important and most consolidated portion of the Russian empire. It is divided into the governments of Moskva, Smolensk, Pskov, Novogorod, Olonez, Archangel, Vologda, Kostroma, Nishegorod, Vladimir, Tula, Kaluga, Twer, Jaroslav, Kursk, Orel, Riäsan, Tambof, and Voronesh.

1st. Moskva.] The government of Moskva has a superficial territory of 10,000 square miles, and a population of 1,289,823. This government presents an undulated surface, diversified only in a few points by small ridges or hills. The environs of the huge capital are considerably adorned

1

by art. The soil is for the most part clay and sand. Some districts of heath and marshes run through the country, the fertility of which is on the whole very indifferent. Every where, under the superior soil, there are beds of granite, of which many large blocks here appear, as in the north of Germany, scattered over the surface of the ground. The waters are numerous. Storch enumerates 2610 streams, and 109 lakes, none of which, however, are of any importance. The Volga, the Oka, and the Moskva-from which latter the government and capital take their name are the only important rivers. The climate is temperate and healthy, and nowise distinguished from the other provinces of Russia, which lie within the temperate zone. The winter, including the broken days of spring and autumn, lasts about five months. Agriculture is the principal branch of industry; yet, as this province, though the best cultivated, is inferior in soil, and the capital consumes a vast quantity of provisions, the harvest is never sufficient for the bare consumption. Gardening is pretty successfully cultivated. Fruit is rare. Flax, hemp, and hops, are only cultivated for domestic consumption. There are various manufactures of cloth, silk, hats, cotton, linen, leather, copper, glass, china, and vitriol. Almost every family of peasants, in the circle of Moskva, conducts some branch of manufacture. On account of its natural situation, the province can only engage in land-commerce; but this is very considerable, Moscow being to the interior commerce, what Petersburg is to the exterior. The roads are excellent, and the Oka and Moskva offer important channels of communication. The great road from Moscow to Petersburg is continued, during a space of 500 miles, almost in a straight line, cut through a forest. This road is of an uniform breadth, and formed of trunks of trees, laid in rows parallel to each other, and bound down in the centre and at each end by long poles or beams fastened into the ground; these trunks are sometimes covered with boards, and sometimes with layers of boughs strewed over with sand or earth. Where the road is new it is remarkably good; but as the trunks decay, or sink below the level of the adjoining parts, it becomes very uncomfortable for travellers. The archbishop of this government is chief of the Russian Greek Church.

The City of Moscow.] Moscow,42 though no longer the capital of the empire, is still the favourite residence of such of the nobles as choose to display the magnificence of eastern grandeur, at a distance from the restraints of court. It is 487 miles S. E. of Petersburg, in north latitude 55° 45′ 45′′, and east longitude 37° 33'. “If," says Mr Coxe, who was there in 1784, "I was struck with the singularity of Smolensko, I was all astonishment at the immensity and variety of Moscow. A city so regular, so uncommon, so extraordinary, and so contrasted, had never before claimed my astonishment. The streets are, in general, exceedingly long and broad; and some of them are paved; others, particularly those in the suburbs, are formed with trunks of trees, or are boarded with planks like the floor of a room. Wretched hovels are blended with large palaces; cottages of one story stand next to the most superb and stately mansions; many brick structures are covered with wooden tops; some of the wooden houses are painted; others have iron doors and roofs. Numerous churches present themselves in every quarter, built in a peculiar style of architecture; some with domes of copper, others of tin, gilt or painted

42 Written Moskva, and pronounced Maskva by the natives.

green, and many roofed with wood. In a word, some parts of this vast city have the appearance of a sequestered desert, other quarters that of a populous town; some of a contemptible village, others of a great capital. Moscow may be considered as a town built upon the Asiatic model, but gradually becoming more and more European; exhibiting, in its present state, a motley mixture of discordant architecture." The delightfulness of the country, now the site of Moscow and its environs, no doubt led to the foundation of a town in or near the present Kremle. The city is situated upon a number of gentle elevations, valleys, and plains; and in form resembles an irregular rhomboid. Its appearance is not less varied than the character of its inhabitants; and as the rivers flow between the chief elevations of the city, they give a beautiful relief to its extended range. Moscow, says Dr Lyall, is an ancient, Petersburg a modern city. The chief beauty of the latter consists in regularity,-the beauty of the former in irregularity. In Petersburg, the triumph of art over nature is every where visible; in Moscow these appear still engaged, as it were, in the attempt to excel each other, forming the finest combinations, or the greatest discordances. There are few straight streets in Moscow; but many of them are enormously wide. The Plostchads, or

squares, places, and markets, are 25 in number. The Krasnaya Plostchad, or Beautiful square,' is not exceeded, if equalled in size, singularity, and grandeur, by any in Europe. The environs of Moscow are beautiful, but the soil is every where argillaceous, except on the sides of the Moskva; and hence, during summer and autumn, the city is often enveloped in clouds of dust. The Moskva flows in a winding channel; but, excepting in the spring, is only navigable for small rafts. receives the Yausa in the Zemlianoigorod, and the Neglina at the western extremity of the Kremle; but the beds of both these rivulets are nearly dry in summer. Nearly one hundred bridges are thrown over these rivers. Previous to the invasion of the French, Moscow was the largest city in Europe; the circumference within the ramparts that enclosed the suburbs being twenty miles. It was also the most populous city in Russia; containing within the ramparts 312,000 souls. It still contains a population of above 200,000, and exhibits the same measure of meanness and magnificence, and the same motley grouping of population which it did in its better days. "In the Bazaar," says M. Ancelot, the traveller beholds "the turban of the Circassian by the side of the elegant hat fresh from the hands of the fashionable French shopkeeper; the close coat of the European by the long and flowing robes of Asia; the Muscovite bonnet, the rude frock, the boots or sandals of bark, mingled with splendid military uniforms and hats crowned with floating plumes. Around this great market-place are seen the carriage and four, the light drosky, and the primitive car which serves to bring to market the productions of the country. The eye is never tired of viewing these various scenes, with the diversities of costumes and physiognomy which enliven them, and make this city appear to belong to all mankind, uniting the extremes of civilization and barbarism."

The Kremle.] It is generally agreed, says Dr Lyall, that the Kremle received its denomination from the Tartars when they were in possession of Moscow, and that the term is derived from the Tartar word Krim, or Krem, which signifies a fortress. The Kremle has been called the fortress, the palace, the castle, the citadel, the holy citadel, &c. by different writers. It forms the centre of Moscow, and has a very elevated and commanding appearance. "Taken as a whole," says Dr Lyall,