Across Russia; From the Baltic to the Danube (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. FINLAND. THE LAND OF A THOUSAND LAKES FINNISH GOVERNMENT EDUCATION AND RELIGION A STOLID PEOPLE RELIGION AND LEGEND LANGUAGE AND TRADE. From Sweden it is easy to go to Finland by steamer in a short night, and the country, though rude and barren, is interesting to the traveller. The name of the country is by some said to be from Fen-land, the land of lakes and marshes; and by others from Finn, meaning " wizard." It is a curious coincidence with this latter derivation that seamen have a superstitious prejudice against Finnish sailors, whom they believe to be in league with evil powers. The land is a vast territory of lakes and rocks, about as large as New England, and is scantily peopled. The seacoast is one continuous series of fiords and islands of rock like the Norway coast, except that the bold and lofty shores of Norway have given place to a low and sloping coast, and none of the fiords extend more than a few miles into the land. On some of the islands, strong fortresses have been erected. In Eastern Finland, which is called the " Land of a Thousand Lakes," more than half of the country is occupied by stony basins of clear water to which the rivers are only connecting links; the country abounds also innaked hills between which are swamps and scrubby forests. It is hardly worth while to travel through the interior, though this can be done now to some extent, by a slow railway that makes its way north to Uleaborg from Abo, and east, at a good distance from the sea, to St. Petersburg. Sportsmen, and now and then tourists, go by three-horse wagons to the interior, where fine fishing and unchanged Finnish customs and costumes reward their effort. The Finns are Russians only in name. They have their own language, which is entirely different from the other language...