The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

FINLAND : NATURALRESOURCES. 221of Svraborg ("Wlapori), crowning seven rocky islets -which command the channel.Still Helsingfors is mainly a commercial town, doing a large trade with Englandand Russia, though its shipping has recently fallen off in consequence of the railwaynow running to Hango Head, at the extreme south-west point of Finland,where the sea remains open much longer than at any other port in tbe country.Helsingfors is the chief entrepot for the two inland towns of Tavastehus(Hiimeenlinna) and Tammerfors (Tampere), the so-called "Manchester of Finland,"with several factories of textile fabrics, and paper-mills worked by water-power.East of Helsingfors are the small seaports of Borga, Lovisa, and Fm/erikshamn,near the latter of which are the extensive Pytiirlaks granite quarries.South-east of it the fortified island of Kotka commands a roadstead, where isstationed a naval flotilla. Near the Russian frontier the coast is broken by thebay, or rather fiord, of Wiborg (Wiipuri), at the northern extremity of whichstands the city of Like name, ranking third for population, second for trade, andfirst for shipping. Large vessels, however, are obliged to stop at Trasund,8 miles farther south, and now defended by strong fortifications. St. Petersburgis thus protected on this side by a second Kronstadt. The Sa'inia Canal, with itsterminus at Wiborg, affords steam communication to Willmamtrand.Beyond the relatively populous southern seaboard, there is only one town ofany importance in the interior. This is Kuopio, capital of a government, andfounded in ] 776 on an islet in Lake Kalla, about midway between Ladoga andUleaborg. Its prosperity is due to its resin and timber trade. Ny-Slott—that is,"Newcastle," or Savolinna—is merely a small borough between Lakes Haukivesiand Pihlejavesi, notable mainly for its picturesque Swedish castle. Keksholm, onLake Ladoga, is also an old stronghold, which, like Serdobol at the north-westangle of the same lake, is now engaged in the timber and granite trade.Material Progress.— Natural Resources. — Industries.Thanks to the development of its agriculture, industries, and trade, thepopulation of Finland is increasing very rapidly, having nearly quadrupled sincethe middle of the eighteenth century, and doubled since 1815, though checked bythe famine of 1868, when nearly 100,000 perished of hunger and typhus. On thesouthern seaboard there are already nearly twenty, and in the government ofNyland over thirty inhabitants to the square mile, but elsewhere the ratio falls toone-third of those figures. It should, however, be observed that of all regionssituated under the same latitude, Finland is the most densely peopled and thebest cultivated.Although enjoying a less favourable cliruate, since the isothermalsare here deflected southwards, she has a far larger relative population in a givenarea than the portions of Scandinavia lying beyond the sixtieth parallel. Norhas immigration much to do with the increase. In the government of "Wiborgthere are some old settlements of Russian peasantry, who have retained theirreligion, which is that of thousands of Karelians, formerly evangelized by theNovgorod Russians. But, apart from the military and officials, there are no more