gulphs of Bothnia, Finland, and Livonia, must be looked upon as one great lake, supported by a great number of rivers which it receives, as the Oder, the Vistula, the Niemen, the Droine, in Germany and Poland; other rivers in Livonia and Finland; others still greater, which come from Lapland, Tornea, the Calis, Lula, Pithea, Uma, and many others that come from Sweden. These rivers, which are very large, are more than 40, including the rivers they receive, which cannot fail of producing a quantity of water sufficient to support the Baltic. Besides, this sea has no flux nor reflux, although it is very narrow and very salt. If we consider also the bearing of the country, and the number of lakes and morasses in Finland and Sweden, we shall be inclined to look on it not as a sea, but as a great lake formed by the abundance of waters from the adjacent lands, and which has forced a passage near Denmark into the ocean, where in fact, according to the account of mariners, they still continue to flow. From the beginning of the gulph which forms the German Sea, and which terminates above Bergen, the ocean follows the coasts of Norway, Swedish Lapland, North Lapland, and Muscovy Lapland, at the eastern part of which it forms a large strait, which borders a mediterranean called the White Sea, which may be likewise regarded as a great lake; for it receives 12 or 13 rivers, all very considerable, and which are more than sufficient to support it; its water is but a little salt. Besides, in many parts it is very near communicating with the Baltic Sea; it has even a real one with the gulph of Finland, for, by ascending the river Onega, we come to a lake of the same name; from this lake Onega there are two rivers of communication with the lake Ladoga; this last communicates by a large arm with the gulph of Finland; and there are many parts in Swedish Lapland, the waters of which run almost indifferently either into the White Sea, or the gulphs of Bothnia and Finland; and all this country being full of lakes and morasses, the Baltic and White Seas seem to be the receptacles of its waters, and which afterwards discharge themselves into the Frozen and German Sea.