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 practicable, 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.

When the Mariensky Canal was begun, in 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 Swir 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'.

2

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 Duina, 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.

Project for
Canals

circuitous

round the

Lake La

doga and

The North

ern Kathe

rinskoy

Canal,

The junction of the

the Don,by

means of

the Shata.

Vitchugda. 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 Belaja, from the Government of Oufimsh 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 Valga with 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 thrée 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.

DIVISION of the BLACK SEA, Inland Navigation.

The DNIEPER is most certainly the chief river of all the provinces adjacent to the Euxine. This river is the younger sister of Volga; and has its source near the same place with the above, and the Southern Dvina. It may be called navigable from Smolensk, if not from Dorogobush. Two very great obstacles render the navigation of this river inconvenient, First, flats, or rather moving sands, a circumstance common also to the rivers of the North of Russia: from above Kiof, down to Krementchûk, they greatly incommode the navigation, during the middle of the summer, Near the shore, on both sides, are passages or channels, of considerable depth; but they are uncertain, as they frequently shift during the high waters. It is confessed, that there are no other means whatever to remedy this inconvenience, (the considerable quantity of moving sand contained by the Dnieper being taken into consideration,) unless a body of pilots be established, divided into districts, to sound, and put beacons or directions in the proper channels, for vessels to go by, after the high water subsides; as is done in the North, particularly on the Svir; and which