Though the entrance to Revel is through danger-1 ous shoals, and it stands on a river which affords lit tle or no intercourse with the interior, yet its com merce is considerable. Its exports and imports are neasly the same as Riga.
Petersburgh is built on both sides of the Neva, and on several islands. The mouth of the river being choked by sand, there are only from seven to eleven feet water over it, according as the wind blows from 'the east or west. With easterly winds, the river often falls three or four feet below its general level ; whereas westerly winds sometimes raise it from ten to fifteen feet. Loader!' ships, of any considerable burden, cannot, therefore, approach the city within four miles. The principal exports are, iron, hemp, flax, cordage, tallow, hides, linseed-oil, hemp and flax-seed, planks and rafters, leather, soap, candles, wax and honey, fish, caviar, tobacco, rhubarb, tea, , isinglass, feathers, linen, and furs. The principal imports are English cotton manufactures, French wines, colours, coffee, sugar, drugs, &c.
Cronstadt, the principal station of the Russian fleet, is built on a little island on the Gulf of Peters burgh, four leagues below the city, the same distance from Ingria, and nine leagues from Finland. The channel to the capital is between this place and the coast of Ingria. Its navigable breadth is three quar ters of a mile, its depth four fathoms. The channel between Cronstadt and the coast of Finland has only five feet water. Cronstadt has three havens, two for ships of war, and one for merchant vessels. The dry docks, which communicate with the sea by a canal, require nine days to empty them. The prin cipal man of war's port has space for 30 sail of the line.
The first commercial port in Finland is Wyborgh, built on a peninsula in a gulf of the same name. It exports corn, butter, tallow, fish, fish-oil, salted pro visions, timber, tar, and hops. In 1798, the value of the exports was 124;832 rubles, and of the imports 120,000. Helsingfors, the best port in Finland for large ships, is on a bay, and opposite to it is Svea borg, the Gibraltar of the north. It occupies seven Islands, and has two basins for repairing ships of the line and smaller vessels. At the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia, on a peninsula, stands Abo. Ves
sels drawing nine or ten feet go up to the town. While it belonged to Sweden, it was a staple town, with some trade to the Mediterranean, France, and Holland, whither it exported iron, nails, copper, deals, rafters, pitch and tar, salted provisions, hides, furs, coarse linens, and firewood to Stockholm and Copenhagen. From Abo there is no commercial • place of consequence till we come to Gamla Carlby, which, in 1794, had 14 ships, of 1580 tons, thirteen of which were employed in foreign trade. Its exports that year were 1800 barrels of tar, 1500 of pitch, between s000 and 4000 deals, 2000 lbs. of butter, 273 cwt. of tallow; and 900 barrels of corn. Bra& ested, a' staple town, while Finland belonged to Sweden, possesses commerce nearly of the same kind and to the same amount as Gamla Carlby. It lies in a bay between two peninsulas. Uleoborg, the chief town of East Bothnia, on the Uleo, exports annually a considerable quantity of pitch and tar, butter, tallow, salmon, herrings, and deals. On the Islands at the mouth of the river are two building places, from which five or six ships are launched an nually. Torneo is situate on a peninsula, and had formerly a good harbour, but the accumulation of sand has almost spoilt it. The exports, besides the general articles from the other ports of Finland, are salted and smoked rein-deer flesh, and the furs of the fbx wolf, and ermine, procured from the Laplanders who visit the town once a year.
The Russian islands at the north extremity of the Gulf of Livonia, (Esel and Dagce, and the numerous Islands and rocks in the Gulf of Finland require no particular notice. The Archipelago of Aland, which was ceded to Russia along with Swedish Finland in 1809, is composed of one considerable, and above 80 lesser islands and rocks. They are in general eleva ted, rising in rocky peaks, with numerous caverns. The principal island is nearly round, and 20 leagues in circumference. There is no town on any of them. Besides firewood, 12,000 loads of which are sent an nually to Finland and Sweden, the inhabitants export salted beef, seal-skins and oil, tallow, hides, pilchards, and butter, chiefly to Stockholm.