302 Geology of Scandinavia. 



streets of the town, and they have discovered, by means of ex- 

 cavations, the surface of an ancient street, eight feet lower. At 

 Trelleborg and at Skancer, there are streets several inches below 

 high water mark ; whilst at Ystad there is a street exactly on a 

 level with the sea. It is clear that these could not have been 

 built in their present position in reference to the sea. 



9. Stationary condition of parts of the coast of Norway. — 

 In another part the coasts of Norway appear to be stationary ; 

 at least M. Eugene Robert, who travelled through Scandina- 

 via, mentions that the sides of the Christianiafiord, would ap- 

 pear to have remained stationary for the last two hundred years, 

 to judge from a pavement of the ancient town of Fredericks- 

 vaern (burned down since that period), which is still on a level 

 with the sea at the harbour. 



Mr Everest, in his Travels in Norway, informs us, that the 

 small isle of Munkholm, which is an isolated rock in the har- 

 bour of Drontheim, presents a conclusive proof that the land 

 in that quarter has remained stationary during the last three 

 centuries. The superficial extent of this isle does not exceed 

 that of a small village, and an official survey has proved that 

 its highest point is 23 feet above the mean high-water mark. 

 A monastery was founded on it by Canute the Great, in the 

 year 1028 ; and thirty-three years before that time, it was used 

 as a place of execution. According to the mean rate of eleva- 

 tion in Sweden (about forty English inches each century), we 

 should be forced to suppose that this isle was 3 feet 8 inches be- 

 low the mean high- water mark, when it was fixed upon as a site 

 for a monastery. 



It would be extremely interesting to trace, at some future 

 period, on the map of Scandinavia, the respective limits of the 

 ascending, the descending, and the stationary zones. Nothing- 

 should be neglected which can lead to a result so important for 

 terrestrial physics and for geology. 



10. Beds of recent shells above the present level of the sea. — 

 Certain geological facts also shew, that the relative level of 

 the land and sea has varied in several parts of the north of Eu- 

 rope at a recent geological epoch. I allude to deposits of 

 shells, often argillaceous, which are observed in certain parts 

 pf Sweden and Norway, at different heights above the sea; 



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