on the south side of the Gulf, and about three miles distant from it.
This line brings the canal to the southwest end of St. Petersburg, where
there are a number of islands, which have formed themselves, in the
course of ages, where the Bolshaya, or Great Neva, flows into the Gulf.
It is on these islands that the new port is to be formed. It is a very
large harbor, and capable of almost any amount of extension. It will be
in connection with the whole railway system of Russia. One part of the
scheme is that of a new canal, on the south side of the city, to connect
the maritime canal, as well as the new harbor, with the Neva, so that
the large barges may pass, by a short route, to the river on the east,
and thus avoid the bridges and traffic of the city.

"The whole length of the canal is about eighteen miles. The longer
portion of it is an open channel, which is made 350 feet wide at bottom.
Its course will be marked by large iron floating buoys; these it is
proposed to light with gas by a new self-acting process which has been
very successful in other parts of the world; by this means the canal
will be navigable by night as well as by day. The original plan was to
have made the canal 20 feet deep, but this has been increased to 22
feet. The Gulf of Finland gradually deepens toward Cronstadt, so that
the dredging was less at the western end. This part was all done by
dredgers, and the earth brought up was removed to a safe distance by
means of steam hopper barges. The contract for this part of the work
was sublet to an American firm--Morris and Cummings, of New York. The
eastern portion of the work on the canal is by far the most important,
and about six miles of it is protected by large and strong embankments
on each side. These embankments were formed by the output of the
dredgers, and are all faced with granite bowlders brought from Finland;
at their outer termination the work is of a more durable kind, the
facing is made of squared blocks of granite, so that it may stand the