Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

170FORTRESS OF SCHLUSSELBURG.

air of surprise, made me feel that the answer was very significative. My request, simple as I had thought it, was evidently an important one in the eyes of the minister. To think of visiting a fortress that had become historical since the imprisonment and death of Ivan VI., which took place in the reign of the Empress Elizabeth, was enormous presumption. 1 perceived that I had touched a tender chord, and said no more on the subject.

Some days after this, namely, the day before yesterday, at the moment I was preparing to depart for Moscow, I received a letter from the minister of war, announcing permission to see the sluices of Schlusselburg !

The ancient Swedish fortress, called the key of the Baltic by Peter Т., is situated precisely at the source of the Neva, on an island in the lake of Ladoga, to which the river serves as a natural canal, that carries its superfluous waters into the Gulf of Finland. This canal, otherwise called the Neva, receives, however, n large accession of water, which is considered as exclusively the source of the river, and which rises up under the waves immediately beneath the wall of the fortress of Schlusselburg, between the river and the lake. The spring is one of the most remarkable natural curiosities in Eussia; and the surrounding scenery, though very flat, like all other scenery in the country, is the most interesting in the environs of Petersburg.

By means of a canal, with sluices, the boats avoid the danger caused by the spring: they leave the lake before reaching the source of the Neva, and enter the river about half a league below.