The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

258 RUSSIA IN EUROPE.The Niemen, which is the essentially Lithuanian river, rises in the province ofMinsk, and skirts on the south the plateau of Upper Lithuania as far as Grodno.Here it trends northwards, and is henceforth navigable for small craft, thoughmuch obstructed by numerous rapids. On entering Prussia below Jiirburg, it takesthe name of the Mcmel, and is now 1,000 feet wide, with a probable discharge ofFig. 121.Bisons of the Bela-Yeja Forest.at least 18,000 cubic feet per second. But it soon ramifies into several shiftingbranches forming thethe port of Memel.delta of the Kurische Haff, with a single navigable canal toIn Lithuania lakes are very numerous, but mostly of small extent. East ofYilna the rocky plateaux are hollowed into a multitude of basins filled with rainwater,and here and there subdivided into smaller reservoirs by old moraines and