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Canal.

against the stream, for the return of them, were ordered to be made in 1799. To facilitate the passage out of the Ladoga Canal into the Neva, against wind and weather, a new outlet was begun to be made, at Schlusselburg, the same year'. In 1798, a new passage was also effected at Ladoga. In general, the Canal of Ladoga, through length of time', requires annual and important repairs. This canal is now The Sáskoy continued from the Volchof to the Sasy River, and thence called the Sáskoy. This work was entered upon in 1769, and three versts thereof finished; and then abandoned; and again resumed in 1799. Great as the importance of the Ladoga Canal to the export trade of St. Petersburg, that of the Sáskoy is no less so, in consideration of the facility of conveying the foreign goods imported at St. Petersburg, and distributing them in the interior of the country. The chief object of these canals is, to avoid the Lake of Ladoga. From the River Sasy, merchandize is conveyed, through the River Tifenka, to the city of the same name; a landcarriage of ninety versts brings it to the wharf

(2) The new Outlets out of the Canal of Ladoga are, one at Schlusselburg, and another at the town of Ladoga.

(3) The Outlet at Schlusselburg was estimated to cost 117,000 roubles; that at Ladoga, 74,000 roubles.

(4) 240,000 roubles are assigned for this canal.

of Sominka; and from thence, by the rivers Tzagodotchia and Mologa, it is conveyed to the Volga, which supplies all the adjacent country. From the wharf of Sominskay, about 2,000,000 roubles in value, of foreign goods, is annually carried into the interior. The deepening of some of the rivers belonging to this inland navigation has increased this branch of trade; but the considerable land-carriage between the Somina and Tifin greatly impede its farther progress. The junction of these two last wharfs, by water, engaged the attention of PETER THE FIRST; and proper measures for the discovery of the most eligible means were taken by Generals Dedenef, Resanof, and others, in 1765. In 1800, the examination was resumed, and the junction of the two wharfs found ticable, by a canal on the English plan, adapted to the navigation of such vessels as are now in use on the rivers Tifenka, Sasy, and Somina. The sluices to be constructed on this canal are to have no more than ten and twelve feet of breadth, when opened. If the plan of those of Vyshney Voloshok were to be followed, they being thirty-two feet wide, a sufficiency of water could never be collected; nor does the situation of the place admit of this mode of construction. By an Imperial ukase, the work was to begin in 1802, and conclude in 1804.

prac

circuitous

Canals

round the

Onega.

doga and

When the Mariensky Canal was begun, in Project for 1799, the practicability of a circuitous inland navigation, round the Onega and Ladoga Lakes, was also examined into, to avoid passing any part of them: the first by means of the rivers Svir and Vitegra, the latter through the Sasy to the Svir. This last was ordered to be carried into execution in 1802, and its chief object is to facilitate the return of barks homeward. The canal from the Sasy to the Svir was ordered in 1802'.

To make a communication by water, between the Caspian and White Seas, or the Volga and the Northern Dvina rivers, was in agitation in the reign of PETER THE GREAT; but the first survey was only made in 1785; and, as hardly any natural obstacle was found to oppose the execution of the plan, it was adopted, and a canal begun to be dug, named the Northern Katherinskoy, which was to unite two small rivulets, having a morass of an immense extent for their common source, situate on the frontier of Permia and Onstnhk. One of these rivulets has a communication, by means of the Kama, with the Volga; and the other with the Northern Dvina, through the river

(1) It is however not begun.

(2) 600,000 roubles was assigned, and 100,000 expended; but the war put a stop to the work.

The Northrinskoy

ern Kathe

Canal.

The junction of the

Folga with

the Don, by

means of

the Shata.

Vitchúgda. But the canal remains unfinished; and the only advantage that resulted from the attempt was, the opening of a new track, or road, by land, through a country then totally waste and uninhabited. This canal could have supplied Archangel, at a trifling expense, with merchandize, not only from the province of Viatka, but through the river Belaya, from the Government of Oufimsk and Tensiovaya from that of Permia, in the course of one summer. The importance of this canal is enhanced, by the facility it affords of conveying timber for ship-building to Archangel, from the immense forests in its vicinity, abounding, particularly, in the Listvinitzna wood, at Tchardina.

The junction of the Volga and the Don was ever an object in view with PETER THE First; and he himself discovered two practical tracks; one from the Lower Volga, by the union of the rivulet Kamishinka with that called Hafla, by a canal of four versts: the other was by uniting the source of the Don, twenty-five versts from the town Ghepisan, with the rivulet Shata, which falls into the Oupa, one of the chief branches of the Oka, which empties itself into the Volga. Of the latter, a considerable part was carried into execution; twenty-four sluices of limestone were built; and the canal dug the extent of the Vale of

Bobriky', answerable to the depth of the bed of the Don. Why a work thus far advanced was abandoned, is not known; some supposed it was for want of water; but the situation of the Vale of Bobriky confutes this statement, as being capable of becoming an immense receptacle of water, and quite sufficient for this navigation. The hydrography of this place will, however, not admit the navigation of vessels of greater length than ninety feet, fourteen feet of breadth, and drawing three feet of water, with a full lading. The other plan proposed, of joining the Don and the Volga by means of the Kamishinka and the Hafla, proved abortive: though actually begun, an insufficiency of water was apparent. The reservoir was intended to be placed at the sources of the Kamishinka; but they were found hardly sufficient to supply the common stream of the river. The Hafla being fifty feet higher than the level of the Volga, could furnish a reservoir of water (point of separation in the original): yet, even with this advantage, the navigation must be carried on in caravans, or in large collective bodies of barks; otherwise the passage will not be effected, for want of water.

(1) Better expressed by the name of the Hollows of Bobriky.

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