Lad'oga

Lad'oga, LAKE, the largest lake of Europe, is situated a short distance N. of St Petersburg, in Russia, being crossed by the frontier-line between that country and Finland. It is 129 miles in length, 78 in breadth, and 6998 sq. m. in area. The southern and eastern shores are low and marshy ; but on the north-west the coast is broken, and rises into cliffs. There, too, are numerous islands. The lake receives the waters of Lake Onega and Lake Ilmen in Russia and of Lake Saima and other lakes in Finland ; and its own waters are carried off to the Gulf of Finland by the Neva (q.v.). The average depth of Lake Ladoga does not exceed 300 feet, except in the north-west, where over a limited area the depth is about 730 feet. The navigation is exceedingly dangerous owing to the shallows, sand-banks, and sunken rocks with which the lake abounds, and to the winds and gales which prevail during the months it is free from ice (May-October). In order to obviate the difficulties of navigation, canals have been constructed to connect the mouths of the rivers that reach it along the south and south-east shores. The principal is the Ladoga Canal (70 miles long and 60 feet wide). This canal system forms the thoroughfare for a very extensive traffic (some 20,000 vessels annually, carrying merchandise valued at £6,000,000) between the Volga and the Baltic, so extensive, in fact, that the government have recently seen fit to construct a new canal parallel to the old Ladoga Canal. Communication by water subsists between Lake Ladoga and the White Sea as well as the Caspian. The fauna of the lake is arctic in character. Two of the islands in the north-west, Valaam and Konevets, are each the seat of a monastery, founded in 960 and 1393 respectively, which are visited by thousands of pilgrims every year.