the Land in Scaiidinavia. 46 



a bed of moss, a few inches or feet beneath the surface, shewing 

 it to have been the seat of ancient waters. Some of the finest 

 estates in Sweden have evidently been gained from the retiring 

 lakes ; and the appearances of drainage in the lake Maeler, seem 

 to imply that the elevation of the land, now in progress, is greater 

 as we approach the hilly country, than it has been found by ad- 

 measurement on the shores of the Baltic. 



The indications of a lifting up of the scarped rocks at Udde- 

 valla, on the west coast of Sweden, and of various places on the 

 coast of Norway, within the present geological era, may also in- 

 dicate a greater rise of Scandinavia towards the west and north, 

 in the line of the mountains. The observations yet made on 

 that coast, however, are not sufficiently numerous to prove that 

 the phenomena on record are not the result of mere local con- 

 vulsions. 



If the views advanced in this paper be correct, it will appear, 

 that though we may, in many cases, account for geological phe- 

 nomena, by reference to causes still in operation, we cannot, with 

 any degree of probability, conclude that they are now capable 

 of producing effects as powerful as they seem to have done in 

 ancient times. The cause which now raises the land in Scandi- 

 navia, four feet in a century, is the same, if we are correct in 

 stating it, which, in remote periods, elevated a ridge of moun- 

 tains to the mean height of 3000, and several of its peaks to 

 upwards of 7000 feet. But how vast a period must elapse be- 

 fore such mountains could be raised at the present rate of ele- 

 vation ? Suppose it proved that the rising now in progress is 

 greater at the mountains than on the coast, and allow it to be 

 ten times greater — that the mountains now rise at the rate of 

 forty feet in a century — still the action must have continued 

 7500 years to elevate the present range of Norwegian Alps to 

 its mean height, and 17,500 to [)roduce the highest elevations. 

 But the general character of this, as of most other high moun- 

 tain ranges, the great difference in height of the several culmi- 

 nating points, and the rapid decline of the whole range towards 

 the east, shew that they have not been elevated by any action so 

 slow and gradual as that now observed. Admitting the cause 

 to be the same, it must in former times have acted with a jliuch 

 higher intensity. 



