Topographic and statistical description of the border line of Petrozavodsk and Povenets uesds with FinlandIII. Roads and connections.It is impossible to describe all connections going across the border, as in winter the roads directions depend on the decisions of the carriers, making it through the frozen marshes and lakes. In summer of land connections only state post roads, connecting towns are more or less convenient for driving. Small and big villages are often lays far from the towns and are connected with other settlements only by very bad country roads, especially in the North, where quite often carriage roads exist only in winter and in summer one have to go by water or by feet. There are two post roads going from Petrozavodsk: 1. To Olonets.
2. To Povenets.
Big local road from Petrozavodsk to the Vosnesenie goods station on the Svir river and to Vytegra:
Local cart road from Pedaselga station to Ladva township, in Petrozavodsk uezd:
Summer cart road from Petrozavodsk to Suojärvi cast-iron mills, in Salma uezd, Viborg gubernia, by Olonets post road:
From Suojärvi township to Suojärvi mills:
Note. In Kindosovo there is a raft ferry crossing on Shuja river, the raft is made of 14 5-yards logs; there is a wooden bridge on piers over Säpsä river (tributary to Shuja river) between Kindosovo and Sämozero villages. The cart-way from Essoila village to Olonets uesd connects with Olonets post road near Keskozero station; it crosses Petrozavodsk uesd villages:
and Olonets uesd villages:
Cart-track from Veshkalitsy township:
Then riding path:
Another riding path from Gautovaara:
And then cart-way to:
Note. There is a Finnish custom post 2 miles from the border with a turnpike and foot quardes, and in Ehkele village, 12 miles from the border, stays mounted border guard squadrun. Another cart-way from Petrozavodsk to Suojärvi mills, goes through station Shuja of Povenets post road and Konchozero mills:
Cart-way from Petrozavodsk to Valazma state cast-iron mills, in Povenets uezd:
There is a steam boat going from Valazma mills by Suna river, though the lakes Poikolo, Chudozero, Kudomagubskoye, Ushkalskoye, Koero strait, (Koerosalmi), Gimolskoye lake, unnamed strait, Roik-Navolotskoye lake, Koldozerka river and on by waters of Vongozersko-Ostrovsky basin to Lenderi lake. The steamer belongs to Valazma mills and is powered by 12 HP steam engine with 2½ feet draft and tags barges with up to 160 metric tons of iron ore. Valazma and Suojärvi mills are connected by 80 miles long riding path, crossing the border at 30 miles from Valazma mills. This road is mainly used by Finnish Orthodox Karelians, going on a pilgrimage through Povenets to Solovetsky monastery. From Valazma one can go in winter by the sleigh-road and in summer by boat up the Suna River to:
There is a riding path from Pälvozero to:
Another riding path from Kostomuksha goes to:
From Porosozero to Megra village laying at the Megri-järvi lake, at the border between Povenets and Ilomantsi uesds, they count 8 miles by land. Winter way from Petrosavodsk to Suojärvi mills:
Note. Near Kokoniemi village every winter a Finnish Custom post with turnpike is set. In summer the same quards protect Finnish shore of Ladoga lake on boats. The roads going to Suojärvi and Valazma mills are especially important as they serve for rather busy traffic between the North-West part of Olonets Gubernia and adjoining Eastern Finland. Aside of this roads there is also a so called Old Kajani road (former military road), quite convinient for carts. This road goes through: in Petrozavodsk uezd.
There is a riding path from Svaytnavolok to:
Notes: 1. In winter they count 12 miles from Kudoma-Guba to Gimolsky township. 2. There is a riding path from Svinaya-Gora village:
3. There is a 20 miles portage from Lenderi lake to Saima basin 4. Exept the riding path from Kolvas-ozero to Alimainen, described ealier, there are two more riding paths from Povenets uesd to Kajani uezd:
On the left side of the border, on Finnish territory, there are good high roads:
The other nearest to the border point from where to roads go is township Pielis. From here local post roads go to:
There are also steamers going from Kuopio to Viborg. From the town of Kajani the road goes to Uleåborg, that stays on the so called big shore road, going along the whole near-sea Finland for 1 580 miles. In winter, when rivers, lakes and marshes, with which the Finland is so rich, froze, connections inside the country become more convenient and numerous. Except for land connections, there are water connections between almost all trading and production centers of Grand Duchy by different water and lakes systems, of them Saima system, covering about 1/4 of Finnish territory, comes close to the described border line. This system consists of big number of open waters with the same level, connected with numerous straits. The Vuoksa river connects these waters with the Northern (Finnish) part of Ladoga lake an Saima channel connects them directly with Viborg bay. There are regular shipping lanes on Saima system, some going over than 1 000 miles. Main cargo here are timber products, iron and meat from upper Finland to Viborg and St.Petersburg and corn and salt in back direction. It is possible to come from Saima basin to Uleå basin. To do that one has to go from Pielisjärvi lake, belonging to Saima system, (about 40 miles from the border in Pielisjärvi uezd, Kuopio gubernia), up by Lieksa river to Jongeri lake and then by portage over Maanselga ridge into Sauna-järvi lake, which through Lammas-järvi lake connects with Kajani river near Kuhmoniemi township. Onother route goes from the same Pielisjärvi lake up by Matku-Joki river into the small Maanselgan-lampi lake. From Maanselgan-lampi across narrow marshy neck, about a half-mile wide, one can portage into Kollio-lampi lake, that runs over into Kijando lake, belongin to Kajani river system. Kajani river or Kajani-elf, runs from the small lake Jortine-järvi at the foot of Maanselga mountains. This 150-miles river creates a continuos range of small lakes. After the exit of the last of them – Nuas-järvi – there are several perilous rapids and falls. The most known of them are Koinu-koski rapids and Emmä waterfall, the fist having 15 feet of downfall and the latter – 18 feet. Both rapids are situated quite near the town of Kajani and are surrounded by high mountains. There are lock-chambers built in the rocks to bypass these rapids. These locks, being 50 feet long and 8 feet wide serve for locking in boats since 1846. There is also a bridge built directly over Emmä waterfall on the road from Kajani to Paldamo. Kajani-elf enters the Eastern part of Uleå-tresk (Oulu-järvi) lake that has about 70 miles in length and 25 miles in width. It is about 16 to 32 feet deep and lays at about 380 feet over the sea level. The waters of this lakes run into the Gulf of Bothnia by the Uleå river, that formes a formidable rapids Meri-koski quite near Uleåborg. the length of the Uleå river is about 110 miles, the width is from 170 to 320 yards and the depth is from 6 to 18 feet, except for the estuary, which is only 4 to 5 feet in depth because of the detritus; its current velocity is about 4 miles in an hour, rising to a 6 miles in an hiure during high waters in spring.
For better shipping seven rapids on the Uleå river are cleared and towing-paths are built on their shores. The shipping traffic on all the waters, that run to the sea by this river, is very active – it serves for the delivery of the one of the main Uleåborg export commodity – rosin.
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