LADOGA (formerly NEvo)

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 61 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: KRO-LAP

LADOGA (formerly NEvo) , a lake of northern Russia, between 59 56' and 61 46' N., and 29 53' and 32 50' E., surrounded by the governments of St

Petersburg

PETERSBURG

and Olonets, and of Viborg in Finland. It has the form of a quadrilateral, elongated from N.W. to S.E. Its eastern and southern shores are flat and marshy, the north-western craggy and fringed by numerous small rocky islands, the largest of which are Valamo and Konnevitz, together having an area of 14 sq. m. Ladoga is 7000 sq. m. in area, that is, thirty-one times as large as the Lake of Geneva; but, its depth being less, it contains only nineteen times as much water as the Swiss lake. The greatest depth, 730 ft., is in a trough in the north-western part, the average depth not exceeding 250 to 350 ft. The level of Lake Ladoga is 55 ft. above the Gulf of Finland, but it rises and falls about 7 ft., according to atmospheric conditions, a phenomenon very similar to the seiches of the Lake of Geneva being observed in connexion with this.
The western and eastern shores consist of boulder clay, as well as a narrow strip on the southern shore, south of which runs a

ridge

of crags of

Silurian

SILURIAN

sandstones. The hills of the north-western shore afford a variety of granites and crystalline slates of the Laurentian system, whilst Valamo island is made up of a rock which Russian geologists describe as orthoclastic hypersthenite. The granite and marble of Serdobol, and the sandstone of Putilovo, are much used for buildings at St

Petersburg

PETERSBURG

; copper and tin from the Pitkaranta mine are exported.
No fewer than seventy rivers enter Ladoga, pouring into it the waters of numberless smaller lakes which lie at higher levels round it. The Volkhov, which conveys the waters of Lake Ilmen, is the largest ; Lake Onega discharges its waters by the Svir; and the Saima system of lakes of eastern Finland contributes the Vuoxen and Taipale rivers; the Syas brings the waters from the smaller lakes and marshes of the Valdai

plateau

. Ladoga discharges its surplus water by means of the Neva, which flows from its south-western corner into the Gulf of Finland, rolling down its broad channel 1o4,00o cubic ft. of water per second.
The water of Ladoga is very pure and cold; in May the surface Temperature does not exceed 36 Fahr., and even in August it reachesonly 500 and 530, the average yearly temperature of the air at Valamo being 36.8. The lake begins to freeze in October, but it is only about the end of December that it is frozen in its deeper parts; and it remains ice-bound until the end of March, though broad ice-fields continue to

float

FLOAT (in O. Eng. floc and flota, in the verbal form f eotan; the Teutonic root is flut-, another form of flu-, seen in " flow," cf. " fleet "; the root is seen in Gr. a-M e, to sail, Lat. pluere, to rain; the Lat, fluere and fluctus, wave, is not connect

in the middle of the lake until broken up by gales. Only a small part of the Ladoga ice is discharged by the Neva; but it is enough to produce in the middle of June a return of cold in the northern

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

. The thickness of the ice does not exceed 3 or 4 ft.; but during the alternations of cold and warm weather, with strong gales, in winter, stacks of ice, 70 and 8o ft. high, are raised on the shores and on the icefields. The water is in continuous rotatory motion, being carried along the western shore from north to south, and along the eastern from south to north. The vegetation on the shores is poor; immense forests, which formerly covered them, are now mostly destroyed. But the fauna of the lake is somewhat rich ; a species of seal which inhabits its waters, as well as several species of arctic crustaceans, recall its former connexion with the Arctic Ocean. The sweet water Diatomaceae which are found in great variety in the

ooze

OOZE (O. Eng. wdse, cognate with an obsolete waise, mud; cf. O. Nor. veisa, muddy pool)

of the deepest parts of the lake also have an arctic character.
Fishing is very extensively carried on. Navigation, which is practicable for only one hundred and eighty days in the year, is rather difficult owing to fogs and gales, which are often accompanied, even in April and September, with snow-storms. The prevailing winds blow from N.W. and S.W.; N.E. winds cause the water to rise in the south-western part, sometimes 3 to 5 ft. Steamers ply regularly in two directions from St Petersburgto the monasteries of Konnevitz and Valamo, and to the mouth of the Svir, whence they go up that river to Lake Onega and Petrozavodsk; and small vessels transport timber, firewood, planks, iron,

kaolin

KAOLIN

, granite, marble, fish, hay and various small wares from the northern shore to Schlusselburg, and thence to St Petersburg. Navigation on the lake being too dangerous for small craft, canals with an aggregate length of 104 m. were dug in 17181731, and others in 18611886 having an aggregate length of lot m. along its southern shore, uniting with the Neva at Schlusselburg the mouths of the rivers Volkhov, Syas and Svir, all links in the elaborate system of canals which connect the upper

Volga

VOLGA (known to the
Tatars
- TATARS (the common form Tartars is less correct)
as Etil, Jill or Atel; to the Finnish tribes as Rau, and to the ancients as Rha and Oarus)

with the Gulf of Finland.
The population (35,000) on the shores of the lake is sparse, and the townsSchlusselburg (5285 inhabitants in 1897) ; New Ladoga (4144); Kexholm (1325) and Serdobolare small. The monasteries of Valamo, founded in 992, on the island of the same name, and Konnevskiy, on Konnevitz island, founded in 1393, are visited every year by many thousands of pilgrims. (P. A. K.; J. T. BE.)

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