Water, water everywhere (in Finland)

In the Grand Duchy of Finland, towns tend to be located along the coasts of the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Bothnia. Is this indicative of the general pattern of settlement? Does knowing the location of towns explain the geography of Finnish villages as well?

If we add in the main post roads and then the provincial post roads, we see that they link the urban space of the grand duchy nicely. 

The villages and parishes have a much broader distribution: they are most certainly not concentrated along the coasts (this is true of non-parish villages in particular).

By adding in the district post roads we see that in many cases, villages that might otherwise appear randomly located are in fact linked by a route connecting the interior to the coast. (This is particularly clear along the Gulf of Bothnia.)

But it isn't until we add the lakes layer that we get shadings of causality. The Finnish interior, clearly, is brimming with fresh water - far more so than any other region of the empire.

While the map tells us nothing other than the location of that water, it gives us enough to begin asking questions about the nature of those lakes, about their relationships to the surrounding land, and about the impact the apparent dominance of water in the landscape had on the culture and economy of the grand duchy.