Mr Johnston on the Land in Scandmavia. iJ5 



In some places the chalk rises to the surface, forming gentle 

 undulations, as in the neighbourhood of Gudumlund, in others, 

 hills of gravel, mixed with flints, are met with ; but in general, 

 nothing is to be seen even on the sea-coast, but the prevailing 

 sandy deposit, here and there cemented together into a more or 

 less compact sandstone. The action of the sea upon land of so 

 'loose a texture is very powerful, and accordingly, the west coast 

 of Denmark, like that of Holland, has from time immemorial 

 been gradually washed away, and encroached upon by the water. 

 On the east coast, again, a compensation, though to a much less 

 extent, is in continual progress. When the agitated waters of 

 the North Sea, urged by a westerly wind, rush along the 

 Skager-rack, and double the Skaw, they reach a comparatively 

 sheltered spot, where they are at liberty to deposit the sand and 

 gravel they have hitherto borne along with them. The conse- 

 quence is, that, on certain parts of this coast, the land is slowly 

 but sensibly increased. In some places, where tlie moorland is 

 in a state of nature, the successive additions are distinctly ob- 

 servable. From the gravel hills, a few miles south of the Lyme 

 Fiord, I was much interested in remarking on the new land a 

 series of slightly curvilinear furrows, marking out the repeated 

 accessions made to it from a period probably very remote. The 

 waters, on passing from the German Ocean to the Baltic Sea, 

 deposit the sand along such parts of the coast as are not in the line 

 of the great current, and every new storm from the east carries 

 them forward on the beach, constituting, probably, a new furrow 

 and a new addition to the growing land. Traces of an ancient 

 beach are found many miles inland, and the names of many of 

 the farms and residences of the proprietors, such as skipsted 

 (shipstead) hbstemark (highest ground) confirm the conclusions 

 as to the reach of the sea in ancient times, which the general 

 appearance of the land suggests. 



But there occur very striking instances of the gradual in- 

 crease of the land or recession of the sea, for which a very dif- 

 ferent cause must be assigned, and to one such instance it is the 

 chief object of the present paper to draw attention. 



It has been long observed that the waters of the Baltic sea 

 are retiring from the land in many parts of Sweden and Fiiv- 

 land, — a fact proved, among other evidence, by the increawng 



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