Ancient Level of the Sea in Finmark. 165" 



metres, and at Hammerfest it is only 14.1 metres. Thus these 

 lines are neither liorizontal nor even parallel with each other. 



There is also a third line which is less evident, and whose 

 reality may be disputed ; it has a height of 40.5 metres in the 

 bay of Alten, but only 21 metres near Hammerfest. 



The marks by which these lines are recognised are the fol- 

 lowing : 1*/, At the mouths of important valleys, horizontal 

 plateaus, formed of heaped-up loose matter, and termed ter- 

 races ; these are the ancient deltas of the river-courses which 

 flowed in the valleys. 2d^ Lines of erosion on the rocks ; these 

 are spaces sensibly horizontal to the eye, where the rocks are 

 corroded and full of holes for a height of one or two metres ; 

 seen from a little distance these lines appear like great black 

 streaks, ^d. Lines which the author terms lines of redresse- 

 ment or of resaut (projection), on account of the movement 

 which elevates the surface above the line. The line itself ge- 

 nerally forms a sort of band more or less even, which mnds 

 horizontally along the declivity of the mountains, and which 

 resembles the bank of a canal or the banquette of a fortification. 



These three kinds may be substituted for one another, or 

 may be placed in juxtaposition, according to the variation of 

 local circumstances ; thus, to a terrace may succeed a line of 

 erosion, or of projection, or conversely. The coincidence of 

 the extreme portions of the two modes of formation can be 

 recognised at a simple glance, or at least by ascertaining that 

 the level has remained the same. There are also long inter- 

 vals in which no vestiges of these lines are to be met with ; 

 but they reappear a little further on, in such a manner as to 

 leave no reasonable doubt of their identity with those pre- 

 viously observed. 



After some remarks on the circumstances which may deter- 

 mine these interruptions, and the marine shells met with in 

 these raised sea-beaches, the author examines rapidly the prin- 

 cipal hypotheses which can afford a key to these phenomena, 

 and is of opinion that that of soultvenients is the most probable. 

 A list follows of the facts of the same kind noticed by other ob- 

 servers on the coast of the kingdom of Norway ; and the me- 

 moir is terminated by a table of hypsometrical measurements, 

 a map of the locality, and a plate of sections. 



