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HISTORY OF

of water in summer is seven, and in spring ten feet; it is supplied bythe Volkof and eight rivulets; the latter being received into reservoirs,are admitted into the canal by means of flood-gates; and the super-fluous water is discharged through an equal number of openings on theopposite side. The vessels enter through the locks and sluices of theriver Volkof, and go out through those of Schlufl'elburg. In 1778,four thousand nine hundred and twenty-feven vessels passed through thecanal of lake Ladoga; an increase of inland commerce of almost onefourth in one year by means of canal navigation.

A scheme has been lately projected to form a canal, so as to ef-fect a communication between lake Ladoga and Bielo-Ozero to theDuna, in order to unite the White sea and the Baltic, and to improvethe inland commerce of another part of the country, viz. that betweenArchangel and Petersburg. The only part of this plan yet finished,is a short cut of about seven miles from the Volkof to the Sejas.

The grand project of uniting the Caspian sea and the Baltic withthe Black sea, by the junction of the river Don with the river Wolga,was planned by Peter the Great. These two rivers approach eachother within the distance of forty miles in the province of Astracan; andthe two rivulets Ilofla and Camafhinska, the former of which falls intothe Don, and the latter into the Wolga, are only separated by an intervalof land of about five miles. Could these two rivulets be made navi-gable, and united by a canal, the Black sea would be joined with theCaspian sea and the Baltic. With this view Peter the Great sent cap-tain Perry, an English engineer, as I before observed, to the spot: thecanal was begun under his inspection, and a cut was actually made amile and a half; but the scheme was dropped then, for reasons beforegiven. It has been revived, however, by the present empress, andprofessor Lovitz was intrusted with the execution of it. Having takena level of the ground between the river Ilofla and the river Camafhinska,he traced out the canal, and was preparing to begin the work, when in

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