The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

346 RUSSIA IX EUROPE.found both in the White Sea and in Lakes Ladoga and Onega.Lake Lache, east ofOneo-a, was formerly inhabited by seals, as is evident from the remains of thiscetacean found on its banks. In fact, all the northern waters between those ofthe Volga and Lake Bielo present an essentially arctic fauna, the fauna characteristicof the great river beginning only at the Sheksna. The contrast is doubtlessdue to a change in the form of the basins. The lacustrine system of theUpper Volga drained till recently to the White Sea, whereas it now flows to theCaspian. In this region lakes and rivers are entangled in one general network,although there are some isolated fresh-water lacustrine basins.Water System.— The Dvina and Petchoba.Although the lakes draining to the White Sea are at present far inferior inextent to Ladoga and Onega, there are seven of them with areas exceeding 200square miles, the largest being that of Seg, in Olonetz (481 square miles). Therivers flowing to the west side of the same basin belong geographically to Scandinaviaand Finland. The first large stream with a distinctly independent course is theOnega, bearing the same name as the great lake of the Neva basin, as if to commemoratethe fact that it rises in a depression formerly common to all these inlandwaters.Its present source, Lake Lache, probably at one time communicated withLake Onega, from which it is still separated only by a partly flooded low-lyingdistrict.This lake, with an area of about 139 square miles, has itself been almostfilled in, now varying in depth from 6 to little over 12 feet. The navigation ofthe Onega is obstructed throughout its whole course by reefs and ledges, on whichthere is very little water in summer.But the chief river of North Russia is the Dvina, or Severnaya Dvina—thatis, North Dvina—so called in contradistinction to the Western or LithuanianDvina. The word itself means " river," like Don and Donau, or Danube,all mere varieties of the same root. The Dvina is a mighty stream, draining anarea of 145,000 square miles, and with a total length of 1,020 miles,including the farthest sources of the Vichegda. The largest head-stream, risingnear the Urals, is fed by two great affluents, the Sisolka from the south, and theVim from the north, the latter communicating by a portage with the Petchorabasin. The Vorikva, or Verkva, one of the tributaries of the Vim, flows partlyunderground, at about 60 miles from its source plunging into a chasm, andreappearing in numerous branches 12 miles farther down.The Vichegda, although the longest, is not considered the main branch, forthe Dvina takes its name higher up, at the junction of the Sukhona and Vug,southern and western tributaries flowing in the direction formerly followed intheir migrations by the Novgorod and Muscovite colonists. At the Vichegdaferry the Dvina is already over half a mile wide, and navigable for large vessels.Lower down, after its junction with the Vaga, Pinega, and numerous otheraffluents, it spreads out 3 or 4 miles from bank to bank, and although scarcelyover half a mile wide at Archangel, it has here a depth varying with the seasons