The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

228 RUSSIA IN EUROrE.streams flow either wny.In Estlionia the land rises somewhat rapidly above thewest coast, here and there forming sandstone and old limestone cliffs, which theGermans here call GUntcn, no doubt the same word as the Danish Mint. Farthereast a few hillocks rise above the low grounds, but there are no real hills except inthe north-east, where several occur 300 feethigh, and one, the Emmo Miiggi, or" Mother Mountain," reaches an elevation of 505 feet. The small Esthonianranges fall southwards towards the Livonian frontier, but beyond the plainswatered by the Embach, or Emba, the ground rises on either side of Lake Virz-jarv,the largest comprised entirely within the Baltic Provinces.East of this lake the chain of hills gradually spreads out, forming a broadplateau commanded by the Munna Miiggi (1,000 feet), the culminating point ofLivonia.This plateau, broken by deep wooded gorges, stretches south-eastwardstowards the "Devil's Mountain," and beyond it into the governments of Pskovand Vitebsk, while a lateral spur runs south-west between the Aa and Dvina, hereforming the so-called " Wendish Switzerland," a charming and romantic tract,studded with hundreds of lakelets.South of the Dvina, Kurland forms another plateau, skirting the river as faras the Mitau plain, lying only a few yards above sea-level, and separated by thevalley of the Aa from the triangular peninsula projecting between the Gulf ofBJga and the Baltic. This peninsula is another ''Switzerland," like that ofLivonia, consisting of a wooded plateau with contours broken into numerousheadlands, and reflecting its foliage in the waters of small lacustrine basins. Itterminates northwards with the so-called "Blue Mountains " and Cape Domesnces,which projects into the water like the prow of a vessel. Southwards the sandyBaltic coast is mostly fringed with dunes, which formerly moved inland underthe west winds, but are now arrested by palings, or bound together by plantations.The Baltic Provinces lie altogether within the zone of the Scandinavian andFinnish erratic boulders. Numerous asar, like those of Sweden, occur in theisland of Osel and on the Esthonian plains. The strias and other marks of glacialaction are visible to a height of 400 feet on the hillsides, and beneath the rootsof the trees or in the peat beds the peasantry often find masses of graniticdetritus brought from Scandinavia, and mingled with a glacial clay analogous tothe till or boulder clay of Great Britain. The boulders are met wherever theland has not yet been reclaimed, and some have even been landed on Munna Miiggi.As in Finland and Sweden, the hills are in many places regularly scored fromnorth-west to south-east, the surface looking as if it had been furrowed bygigantic ploughs. The parallel depressions left between the forests now formlacustrine basins.While the land is subsiding on the East Prussian coast, it is rising in theBaltic Provinces, or at least in Esthonia, having risen 2 ,4 inches between 1822and 1837 in Revel Harbour.on the Swedish side of the Gulf of Bothnia.Here, however, the movement is much slower thanThese provinces belong to several river basins. In the north-east the