Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-06-10
CITY OF PETER The GREAT.
How the Land on Which st. Petersburg
Sfanlla Hna Conn, from Irnhar. XVntar-

How the Land on Which st. Petersburg
Stands Has Come from Under Water.
Several centuries before Peter the Great
began to build his northern paradise on the
swamps and marshes of the Neva delta the
Baltic and White seas were connected by
gulf, the waves of which washed over the
present site Of st. Petersburg. and the Neva,
now forty miles long, had then no existence.
There was only short entrance to the lake
Of the Neva, now the Ladoga lake, with q
! Swedish fortress on its banks called Oreshek.
| Through this lake and down the various Rus
sian rivers to the stream of the Dneiper the
ancient Variags, or Scandinavian pirates, and
Vikings fought and found their way TO Con-
Stantinople. Peter the Great no sooner built
| st. Petersburg on the low banks of the Neva
delta than tine waves of the gulf swept over
It and threatened to wash the new town and
its inhabitants into the sea.
Peter, however, is credited with far more
foresight than his contemporaries, and is sup
posed to have taken into his calculations that
the gradual lowering of the laue of the Baltic
sea would render foundations less and less
frequent until they ceased altogether. In any
case the first after Peter to note this phenom.
enon was the Swedish astronomer Celsius,
who made regular observations for thirteen
years, and reckoned that the level of the Bal
tic sank at the rate Of 2 feet inch in a CEN
tury. Further observations for 100 years
prove that the centennial rate of subsistence is
as much as 21& feet The central statistical
committee has defined the rate at which the
shore line of the Finnish gulf gradually rises
above the water in the course of century at
l-6 feet
This sinking of the sea level or rising of the
land must naturally increase the surface area
of the islands at the mouth of the Neva. In
fact, at the same time that the seaboard part
Of st, Petersburg is gradually growing in ex-
tent, it is evident that number of new ISL
ands are appearing at the mouth of the Neva
and its branches, which must sooner or later
take their place as parts of st. Petersburg.
The south side of the Neva has finished its
growth, but the two groups Of islands on the
northern banks show considerable expan-
sion during the last 146 years Among the
group of islands clustered round the large
William Island the increase Of surface area
within this period has been 2l3 dessiatines,
or about 500 acres The adjoining group,
called the Petersburg side, " has increased by
159 dessiatines, altogether 372 dessiatines in
146 years. It is calculated on the basis of in
vestigations made by the photographed Sec
tion of the naval staff that when the sea level
sinks three more feet, which is the present
depth of water opposite the Great Neva, or
principal arm Of the delta the surface ex-
tent of st Petersburg will bo increased by
1,040 dessiatines, or twice and a half as many
acres, besides which three new islands are
rising out Of the water with an area of about
2n dessiatines. In this way st. Petersburg
will gain an increase of area equal to one
sixth Of its present extent. t.--London Times