Finland is one of the most remarkable regions of the great European
plain; its granite floor, elevated above the sea-level probably in a
recent geological period, is worn into thousands of angular lake-basins,
which form a perfect network over its surface; to the sailor on the
Baltic its margin presents a girdle of steep cliffs guarded by a fringe
of rocky islets or skerries. The cliffy Aland Islands are detached
fragments of this remarkable formation.