the Land m Scandinavia. 4*7 



we might, from analogy, expect to meet with some traces of 

 elevation still in progress. In inland districts, supposing eleva- 

 tions to take place, the relative height of all objects must remain 

 the same, all being equally uplifted. In such cases, barometri- 

 cal measurements are the only means of determining the fact. 

 But it is obvious, that gradual though slow elevations may take 

 place for a long time, without being made sensible by this mode 

 of admeasurement. It is only, therefore, where the chain of 

 mountains has its course near the sea that we can easily deter- 

 mine whether the relative levels of the sea and land undergo any 

 change. Series of observations, where circumstances are favour- 

 able, might lead to very interesting results ; and, at all events, 

 would prove whether or not the phenomena observed in Scandi- 

 navia have their counterpart in any other country. 



Italy is placed in circumstances such as would justify the ex- 

 pectation that a gradual elevation of the whole peninsula may 

 possibly be still detected ; and, girt as it is on either shore by the 

 ddeless waves of the Mediterranean, the difficulty of making ac- 

 curate observations cannot be great. It requires only that, on the 

 rocks along the coast, a series of lines should be drawn as near 

 as may be to the mean level of the sea, and the time of observa- 

 tion recorded. Ten, twenty, or thirty years after, the line of 

 mean level, taken anew, would indicate if any, or how much, 

 change had taken place. We know that, since the time of the 

 Romans, parts at least of the Italian shore have been raised 

 above their ancient level. Lines of mean level, drawn at diffe- 

 rent places along the whole coast, would shew how far these ob- 

 served elevations are partial, and the result of local causes, or 

 the indications of a general uplifting due to a cause operating 

 along the whole range of the Appenines. 



Qn the southern shore of the Bay of Biscay, from Bayonne 

 to Corunna, along which the continuation of the Pyrenees ex- 

 tends itself, is another locality, where change of level may pos- 

 sibly be still observable. In America, almost the whole west 

 coast maybe expected to undergo a gradual rise. 



In Scotland, and especially in the mountainous districts, we 

 have evidence of the existence, in remote times, of a system of 

 drainage similar to that still going on in Sweden. The cause 

 was probably the same, though, whether that cause still operates 



