_Lake Onega Canal._—Another project that has for some time past found a great deal of favour in Russia is that of a waterway from the White Sea to the Baltic by way of Lake Onega. Communication already exists between the two seas, but it is by a roundabout water route, starting from Archangel, and running up the Dwina to a point near Vologda. A canal would reduce this distance of nearly 1500 miles to about one-third of that figure. The estimated cost of the canal is about 750,000_l._ The project is one that received the consideration of Peter the Great, who, as we have already seen, was the greatest canal-maker that Russia has produced. _The Volga and Don Canal._—The new canal between the Volga and the Don will be 53 versts in length, and is estimated to cost 2,780,000_l._ The canal will commence at the Volga, 7 feet below the level of the Black Sea, and will terminate at a point of the river Don which is 119 feet higher than that water. At its tenth verst from the river Don the canal will traverse the river Karpooka, and at the twenty-fourth verst it will pass the Krivomoozquiski Station of the Volga-Don Railway. Here a basin for shipping will be provided. The canal subsequently runs parallel with the railway until it reaches the river Tchervlenoi, a branch of the Karpooka. From this point the watershed of the Volga and the Don will be cut through, the deepest cutting being 140 feet. The soil, however, is sandy, and is easily dealt with. A rapid descent is made at the end of the canal, where there will be a fall of 270 feet in 6 miles, and where thirteen locks, each 6½ metres deep, will be constructed. The total amount of earth to be excavated is estimated at 2,780,000 Russian cubic fathoms. It is proposed to construct each lock large enough to contain at one time two vessels, severally 210 feet long, 42 feet broad, and 7 feet deep. _The Hyegra and Kovja Canal._—In July 1886, a new canal, which forms an important link in the chain of canals that connect the Caspian and the Baltic was opened. This canal is 15 miles in length, 70 feet wide, and 7 feet deep. It joins the rivers Hyegra and Kovja. Upwards of 20,000 labourers were employed in the undertaking, together with three dredging machines, but the greater part of the work was done by hand. The quantity of excavation required was upwards of 270,000 Russian cubic fathoms of earth. Some of the cuttings were 30 feet in depth. The undertaking did not, however, present any engineering difficulties of importance. The traffic of the Caspian Sea is now very considerable, having been enormously increased within recent years by the development of the petroleum trade of Baku, and of the wealth of the minerals and other natural productions that are common to that region. The Baltic is a natural and the most convenient outlet for a great part of this trade, although pipes have been laid from the Caspian to the Black Sea, in order to discharge the petroleum into ships navigating that waterway.