Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/210

Rh 190 S A I S A I 540 miles from South America, in 29 15' W. long. Their outline is irregular, and as they are only separated by narrow but deep chasms they have the appearance of being one island. The whole space occupied does not exceed 1 400 feet in length by about half as much in breadth. Besides sea- fowl two species of noddy (Anous stolidus and Anous melanogenys) and a booby or gannet (Sula leucogaster) the only terrestrial inhabitants are insects and spiders. Fish are abundant, seven species (one, Holocentrum sancti pauli, peculiar to the locality) being collected by the " Challenger " during a brief stay. Darwin (On Volcanic Islands, p. 32) decided that St Paul's Rocks were not of volcanic origin ; more modern investigators Renard, A. Geikie, and Wadsworth maintain that they probably are eruptive. See Reports of the Voyage of H.M.S. Chal- lenger : Narrative of the Cruise, vol. i. ST PETER PORT, the capital of the island of GUERNSEY (q.v.); its population was 16,658 in 1881. ST PETERSBURG, a government of north-western Russia, at the head of the Gulf of Finland, stretching along its south-eastern shore and the southern shore of Lake Ladoga. It is bounded by Finland and Olonetz on the N., Novgorod and Pskoff on the E. and S., Esthonia and Livonia on the W., and has an area of 20,750 square miles. It is hilly only on its Finland border, the re- mainder being flat and covered with marshy forests, with the exception of a plateau of about 350 feet high in the south, the Duderhof hills at.Krasnoye Selo reaching 550 feet. A great number of parallel ridges of glacier origin intersect the government towards Lake Peipus and north- wards of the Neva. Silurian and Devonian rocks appear in the south, the whole covered by a thick glacial deposit with boulders (bottom moraine) and by thick alluvial de- posits in the valley of the Neva. The government skirts the Gulf of Finland for 130 miles. The bays of Cronstadt, Koporye, Luga, and Narva afford good anchorage, but the coast is for the most part lined with reefs and sandbanks ; to the east of Cronstadt the water becomes very shallow (18 to 20 feet). The chief river is the Neva, which receives only a few small tributaries ; the Luga and the Narova also enter the Gulf of Finland. The feeders of Lake Ladoga the Volkhoff, the Syass, and the Svir, the last two forming part of the system of canals connecting the Neva with the Volga are important channels of com- merce, as also is the Narova (see PSKOFF). Marshes and forests cover about 40 per cent, of the surface (70 per cent, at the end of the 18th century). The population (apart from the capital) was 635,780 in 1882, 827 per cent, being Russians, 15'0 Finns, 0'5 Esthonians, and 1*8 per cent. German colonists who have immigrated since 1765. Twenty per cent, are Protestants ; the remainder mostly belong to the Greek Church ; but there are also more than 20, 000 Nonconformists, about 6000 Catholics, and 1500 Jews. Agriculture is at a low stage and very unproductive ; the Germans, however, get advantage from it. The Finns rear cattle to some extent. Manufactures are especially developed in the districts of Tsarskoye Selo and Yamburg, cottons, silks, paper, ironware, and machinery (at Kolpino) being the chief products. Several large manufacturing establishments especially at Cronstadt are maintained by the state for military purposes. The government is subdivided into eight districts, the chief towns of which are St Petersburg (see below), Gdoff (3150 inhabitants), Luga (1650), Novaya Ladoga (4100), Peterhof (7950), Schliisselburg (10,400), and Yamburg (3250). Gatchiua (10,100), Narva (8610), Oranienbaum (3600), and Pavlovsk (3400) have no districts. Cron- stadt and the capital form separate governorships. Okhta, Kolpino, Pulkova, and Krasnoye Selo, though without municipal institutions, are worthy of mention. ST PETERSBURG, capital of the Russian empire, is situated in a thinly-peopled region at the head of the Gulf of Finland, at the mouth of the Neva, in 59 56' N. lat. and 30 40' E. long., 400 miles from Moscow, 696 from Warsaw, 1138 from Odessa, and 1338 from Astrakhan. The city covers an area of 21,195 acres, of which 12,820 belong to the delta proper of the Neva; 1330 acres are under water. The Neva, which leaves Lake Ladoga at its south-west angle, flows in a wide and deep stream for 36 miles south-west and north-west, describing a curve to the south. Before entering the Gulf of Finland, it takes for 2 1 miles a northerly direction ; then it suddenly turns and flows south-west and west, forming a peninsula on which the main part of St Petersburg stands, itself sub- dividing into several branches. It discharges a body of remarkably pure water at the rate of 1,750,000 cubic feet per second, by a channel from 400 to 650 yards in width, and so deep (maximum depth, 59 feet) that large vessels approach its banks. The chief branch is the Great Neva, which flows south-west with a width of from 400 to 700 yards and a maximum depth of 49 feet (discharge, 1,267,000 cubic feet per second). The other branches are the Little Neva, which along with the Great Neva forms Vasilyevskiy FIG. 1. Environs of St Petersburg. (Basil's) Island, and the Great Nevka, which with the Little Neva forms Peterburgskiy Island and sends out three other branches, the Little Nevka, the Middle Nevka, and the narrow Karpovka, enclosing the islands Elaghin, Krestovskiy, Kamennyi, and Aptekarskiy (Apothecaries' Island). Smaller branches of the Great and the Little Nevas form the islands Petrovskiy, Goloday, and numerous smaller ones ; while a broader navigable channel forms the Gutueff and several islands of less size in the south-west. Two narrow canalized channels or rivers the Moika and the Fontanka as also the Catherine, Ligovskiy, and Obvodnyi Canals (the last with basins for receiving the surplus of water during inundations), intersect the main- land. All the islands of alluvial origin are very low, their highest points rising only 10 or 11 feet above the average level of the water. Their areas are rapidly increasing (572 acres having been added between 1718 and 1864), and the wide banks which continue them towards the sea are gradually disappearing. The mainland is not much higher than the islands. At a height of from 7 to 20 feet (seldom so much as 29) the low marsh land stretches back to the hills of the Forestry Institute (45 to 70 feet) on the right and to the Pulkova and Tsarskoye Selo hills on the left. The river level being subject to wide oscillations and rising several feet during westerly gales, extensive portions of the islands, as also of the mainland, are flooded every winter ; water in the streets of Vasilyevskiy Island is a common occurrence. In 1777, when the Neva rose 10'7 feet, and in 1824, when it rose 13'8 feet, nearly the whole of the city was inundated. But, owing to the con- struction of canals to receive a large amount of surplus water, and still more to the secular rising of the sea-coast, no similar occurrence has since been witnessed. Broad sandbanks at the mouth of the river, leaving but a narrow channel 7 to 20 feet deep, prevent the entrance of larger ships ; their cargoes are discharged at Cronstadt