which brought the goods up to the capital. "The delay and expense of
this process," says Mr. William Simpson, our special artist, "will be
understood by stating that a cargo might be brought from England by a
steamer in a week, but it would take three weeks at least to transport
the same cargo from Cronstadt to St. Petersburg. Of course, much of this
time was lost by custom house formalities. Sometimes it has taken even
longer than is here stated, which made the delivery of goods at St.
Petersburg a matter of great uncertainty, thus rendering time contracts
almost an impossibility. This state of things had continued from the
time of Peter the Great, and his great scheme had never been fully
realized. The increase of commerce and shipping had long made this a
crying evil; but even with all these difficulties, the trade here has
been rapidly growing. A scheme to bring the shipping direct to the
capital had thus become almost a necessity. As Manchester wishes to
bring the ocean traffic to her doors without the intervention of
Liverpool, so St. Petersburg desired to have its steamers sailing up to
the city, delivering and loading their cargoes direct at the stores and
warehouses in her streets. If Glasgow had not improved the Clyde, and
had up to the present day to bring up all goods carried by her ocean
going steamers from Port Glasgow--a place constructed for that purpose
last century, and which is twenty miles from Glasgow--she would have
been handicapped exactly as St. Petersburg has been till now in the
commercial race.

"For some years the subject was discussed at St. Petersburg, and
more than one scheme was proposed; at last the project of General N.
Pooteeloff was adopted. According to this plan, a canal has been cut
through the shallow bottom of the Gulf of Finland, all the way from
Cronstadt to St. Petersburg. The line of this canal is from northwest to
southeast; it may be said to run very nearly parallel to the coast line