I6i M. BravaL* on the Lines of the 



neate by the pen that which wore a fitter subject for the pen- 

 cil.^ 



Axmimter, Dec. 31. 1839. 



On the Lines of the Ancient Level of the Sea in Fimnark. 

 By M. Bravais. 



In a memoir communicated to the French Academy of 

 Sciences, M. Bravais has brought together the results of mea- 

 surements of height made of the lines which denote the former 

 level of the sea in Finmark in Norway, between the 70th and 

 71st degi-ees of northern latitude. These observations were 

 carried on during a residence of a year in that district, and 

 during the leisure left him while fulfilling the special mission 

 assigned him of prosecuting meteorological and astronomical 

 researches ; and his other occupations prevented him from col- 

 lecting a more complete amount of information on this question. 



The field of his researches embraced an extent of about 18 

 marine leagues, from the small tow^n of Hammerfest to the 

 mines of Kaafiord, at the inner extremity of the bay of Alten. 



The author distinguishes two lines of ancient level extremely 

 w^ell marked. The upper line has an elevation of 67.4 metres t 

 in the Kaafiord, and its elevation diminishes gradually as far 

 as the mouth of a river called the Jern-elv, where it is not 

 more than 42.6 metres. From that point it diminishes in a 

 much more rapid manner as far as Hammerfest, where the 

 height is only 28.6 metres. The lower line follows similar 

 phases, but its inclination is regular, and about 35" of a de- 

 gree ; its altitude near Bossekop in the Altenfiord is 27.7 



* We are glad to remark the announcement of a series of plates illustra- 

 tive of the above described subsidence of land, and which is to be accompa- 

 nied by a geological memoir, descriptive of this and similar phenomena, from 

 the pen of the Rev. W. D. Conybeare, the whole to be revised by Dr Buck- 

 land. We have seen two of these plates, viz. *' A View of the Axmouth 

 Landslip from Dowlands," and " A View of the Landslip from Grand Bin- 

 don ;" both of which are from drawings by Mrs Buckland, and are not only 

 remarkable for their beauty of effect, and for the skill in delineation they 

 exhibit, but likewise bear marks of minute geological accuracy. — Editob. 



t A metre, equal to 3 feet 3.37 inches English, 



