EsTHONiA and Finland combine to form the Gulf of Finland, one of the three huge arms that the Baltic stretches into the northern lands. The entrance to the Gulf lies between Revel and Abo. In the middle it expands into a wide lake, then, narrowing more and more, ends in the small bay of Cronstadt, which is, in fact, only the expanded mouth of the Neva, or rather the basin through which the waters of the Delta reach the open sea. The bay is shallow, its average depth scarcely reaching twelve feet, and affording a sharply-defined and narrow channel for vessels that do not draw more than eight or nine feet water. There, where the sea properly begins, marking the limits of the bay, and enclosing it almost to a lake, the coast of the Kettle Island rises above the level of the sea. This island exchanged its former Finnish name of Retusari, or Rat Island, for its present, when the armed delegates of Peter the Great, in the year 1703, drove off the Swedes. The latter, in retreating, left nothing behind them but a great camp-kettle, which the Russian conquerors reared in triumph on a pole as a trophy of victory, and immediately baptized the island after it.
Peter soon became aware that Kotlinoi Ostroff must be the key and outwork for the defence of his new capital, and he began himself to fortify it. The mouths of the Neva are many, and a multitude of ramparts were necessary to put all in a state of defence. The islands at these mouths are extraordinarily low and swampy, and decline so gradually into the sea, that the erection of fortifications would have cost enorn\ous sums. The Kettle Island lies in the midst of the water directly before the bay of Cronstadt, nearly semi -distant from the northern Carelian as from the southern Ixigriau coast. Thus, there remain but two arms of the sea to guard against the entrance of a hostile fleet. The navigation of the northern is by nature difficult, on account of the sandbanks : the sinking of vessels filled with stones made it altogether inaccessible. The southern arm, although nearly seven versts broad, has an exceedingly narrow channel close to the island. This arm had therefore to be invested with defences as with a coat of mail. For this purpose the coasts of the island, and that of Ingria, if not particularly good, w^ere at least much more so than the low flat margins of the Neva islands, and a number of rocks and islets offered themselves as natural bases for forts and citadels. Peter the Great built the fort of Kronshlott on the southern side, and began one on the island itself. Succeeding governments completed these ; and Paul I., in providing the rock of Riesbank with fortifications, under whose cannon any vessel must pass to enter the bay, seems to have perfected the defences of Cronstadt.
Cronstadt may be considered as the water-gate of St. Petersburg. Here is the chief station of the Baltic fleet, here the chief custom-house, and here all ships coming from the sea anchor. The smaller vessels run up to the mouths of the Neva ; the larger stop here to discharge a part of their cargo before going further, or they discharge it altogether into the magazines of Cronstadt that belong to the St. Petersburg merchants.
A multitude of small vessels and steam-boats, which start at regular hours, maintain a communication with the capital. When a favourable wind brings up at once whole fleets of a hundred or more large vessels from the sea, or when the Russian war-fleet is preparing for a cruise, there are as many steam-boats and sailing-boats, cutters, schooners, brigs, gondolas, and boats, fetching and carrying intelligence, merchandise, and passengers, as there are droshkies, britshkas, and caleches on the Prospekt.
The bay of Cronstadt is as lifeless a desert in winter, that is nearly six entire months, as it is animated in summer. The whole surface is frozen in winter to one solid level, broken only by three roads — one from St. Petersburg, one from Oranienbaum, and one from Sestrabeck. These roads are indicated by signal posts : and on that to St. Petersburg, which is above 30 versts long, is a station built for rest and refreshment. In former times these ice-fields were often animated enough. Russian history tells of many battles fought on the crystal floor of the bay, over the heads of the fishes and seals.