iJie Land in Scandinavicu jRjf 



ving been made in 1821, under the joint direction of the 

 Swedish Academy and the Russian Minister of Marine. The 

 result of these comparative admoasurements is, that, along the 

 greater part of the Baltic, the mean height of the water appears 

 to fall from three to five feet in a century, or about one foot 

 every twenty-five years. 



From a mere local observation of the phenomena along the 

 Swedish coast, we should conclude with Celsius, Linnaeus, and the 

 other early observers, that the waters of the Baltic are gradual- 

 ly retiring. But when we consider that, though an inland sea, it 

 communicates by the Sound and the Belts with the German 

 ocean, it will be evident that the mean level of the Atlantic 

 ocean itself must have fallen at an equal rate, if the change ob- 

 servable on the shores of the Baltic be due to a depression of 

 the waters of that sea. Now, supposing such a fall of the level 

 of the great seas to be physically possible, none such has at least 

 ever been observed, and therefore, the apparent change of level 

 of the waters on the coast of Scandinavia, must be due to a gra- 

 dual elevation of the land itself. This conclusion is confirmed 

 by the remarkable fact already adverted to, that, below a cer- 

 tain latitude, the change ceases to be sensible even on the Swedish 

 coast ; while there is sufficient evidence to shew that none has 

 taken place on those of Pomerania, Holstein, and the Danish 

 islands, during the last 500 or 600 years ; whereas, were the 

 level of the sea actually sinking, traces of it should be observ- 

 able on every part of the shores of the Baltic. 



That the land is slowly and insensible rising, is the general 

 persuasion in Sweden, and it has been adopted by almost every 

 geologist who has visited that country. Haussman and Von 

 Buch, both of whom are intimately acquainted with the Scan- 

 dinavian peninsula, have advanced and advocated this opi- 

 nion ; but there are other geologists who decidedly reject it. 

 Among these is Professor Lyell, who characterizes the opinion 

 of Von Buch as " an extraordinary notion,'' (Geology, vol. i. 

 p. ^65.) and attributes many of the phenomena to the " gra- 

 dual filling up of the Baltic by fluviatile and marine sedi- 

 ment." (Ibid. p. 46.) That many examples of such filling 

 up are to be met with is very probable, but they are wholly in- 

 dependent of the phenomena on which the proof of the change of 



