Scientific Intelligence. Wl 



same formation in the valley of Stordalen. Some remains of fishes and 

 echini enveloped in hardened clay, and brought from Romsdalen and 

 Nordmor, seem to have been derived from the ordinary clay of which we 

 speak. Finally, the marine plants in the peat of Oreland, already re- 

 marked by M. Fabricius, will complete the list of organic remains con- 

 tained in these recent deposits. Much has been said of bones of whales 

 which it is pretended have been found at considerable elevations in Nord- 

 land and Finmark, but hitherto they have not been seen by any natu- 

 ralist, and we cannot yet range such assertions among our citations of 

 facts, although they seem by no means improbable, especially since the 

 discovery made by Ross in Lancaster Sound. Without dwelling more 

 on these particulars, I shall now only mention the results to which I 

 have been led by my researches on marine deposits, regarded as traces of 

 the rising ( soulevement ) of the surface of Scandinavia. \8t, The clay in 

 question (that is, the common clay of Norway, which is used for the 

 manufacture of bricks), the shell gravel and the peat, at Zoffera, indicate, 

 by the different level of the masses they form, several reiterated risings 

 (soulevemens). 2d, The argillaceous deposits, more especially, occur at 

 different elevations, and forming several terraces, some being at a greater 

 height than the others. The maximum height of these terraces seems to 

 be about 600 Paris feet. 8rf, The shell gravel deposits being met with 

 from North Sweden to Finmark, the upraised districts must have had a 

 very considerable extent ; there is certainly no reason for supposing that 

 each shock must have acted on all that part of Scandinavia, but still a very 

 remarkable equality in the distribution of the masses in question supports 

 the belief that at least some of the soulevemens must have been almost ge- 

 neral.* Besides the ancient shore-lines and the marine deposits of which I 

 have now spoken, there is still a curious fact which is probably connected 

 witli the same Scandinavian risings {soulevemens). In many places, on the 

 high mountains, the limits of vegetation seem to have descended. Roots 

 of trees are found where shrubs hardly grow at present ; forests of pines 

 (Pinus sylvestris) terminate on the flanks of mountains by lines of dead 

 trees, wliich, however, have remained in their upright position for seve- 

 ral ages, &c. This fact has been observed not only in Sweden, but also 

 in Norway, which does not seem to undergo the same gradual rising as 

 the eastern part of Peninsula. As to this last movement of the sur- 

 face of Scandinavia, I have hazarded the conjecture, that even this 

 change of level, which, according to ordinary views, is altogether unique 

 of its kind, is to be attributed to shocks that have taken place du- 

 rhig earthquakes, but that these shocks are inconsiderable, and that 

 the soulevement which results from them is only perceptible after their 

 long-continued repetition. — Lift of Fossils of the Norwegian Shell Gra- 



• Even in Spitzbergen, I have remarked beds of clay analogous to those of 

 Scandinavia of which we are now speaking, and elevated about twenty feet 

 above the shore. In these beds I found the Buccinura carinatum, a shell pe- 

 culiar to the Polar Sea. 



