The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

FINLAND: LAKES. 211It looks as if an enormous harrow had been trailed along the ground all theway from the Scandinavian uplands to Lake Ladoga. In many places the lineshave almost a geometrical regularity, hills, lakes, fens, lines of erratic boulders,following in perfect parallelism from north-west to south-east, so that all thesubsequent works of man, embankment-, dykes, ditches, highways, have necessarilybeen constructed on the same lines. Along the upheaved seaboard thecapes, peninsulas, and islets are often disposed with the same uniformity, andequally betray evidences of glacial action. This is notably the case between themouth of the Kumo and Xystad, on the Gulf of Bothnia, and between Borg&and the island of Bjorko, on that of Finland.In this respect the form of Wiborgfiord,with its peninsulas and islands fitting into each other, is highly instructive.Striaj have been observed on the highest summits corresponding with those of marineshoals, rocks near Helsingfors 115 feet below sea-level being similarly marked.Numerous harju, or moraines, corresponding with the Swedish asar, are also foundin Finland. As in Sweden, some cross the lakes like broken ramparts, and arefollowed throughout their length by the highways, connected where necessary bybridges and ferries. A remarkable instance is the Punga-harju, 100 feet high, andconnecting both sides of one of the northern basins of Lake Sainia, south of Ny-Slott.Lakes.— Islands.The southern harju, here aptly called Salpau-Selkii—that is, trenches or barriersrun parallel with the gulf, and are broken here and there by the pressure of thewater. In the same way Lake Saima is limited in the south by one of these dams,interrupted only by the course of the Wuoxen. When a lake on a higher leveldischarges through one of these openings, the old level is clearly marked on thestrand, and the mud of the lower basins is covered by layers of sandy deposits.Tbe work of nature is occasionally assisted by the hand of man in reclaimingfertUe tracts. By skilfully directing the course of the streams, the Finns thusyearly add to their domain, continually altering the aspect of the land. Theengineers, however, are at times deceived in calculating the strength of thesedykes, as in the case of Lake Hoytiainen, north of Joensu, in East Finland. Forthe purpose of gradually lowering the waters of this basin, whose level was 70 feetabove that of Lake Pyhaselkii, a ditch 10 feet broad was begun in 1854, and soonchanged to a meandering stream by the rains and melting snows. But onAugust 3rd, 1859, the dykes intended to regulate the overflow suddenly gave way,followed by a rush and a roar heard at Joensu, 6 miles off. The destructiveinundations lasted three days, during which time Lake Saima, recipient of theoverflow, was so agitated that the craft navigating its waters could scarcelyresist the violence of the waves. The discharge was estimated at 3,662,000,000cubic yards, or somewhat over 14,400 cubic yards per second, which is about thequantity discharged by the Danube and Rhone combined. The amount of solidmatter carried down represented at least 46,000,000 cubic yards, forming a largedelta in Lake Pykaselka, and greatly reducing the area of the upper lake.