SOO Geology of Scandinavia. 



the oldest stratified deposits throughout the whole of Europe ; 

 whilst the second, judging from the direction of the Kiolen 

 chain, appears to me to belong to the epoch of the soulevement 

 of the western 2\lps. These conjectures may give rise to the 

 inquiry as to whether there was, in the north, a first souleve- 

 ment of very old granite, which migiit have given rise to the 

 first system ; a final soulevement of hypersthene-rocks, which 

 might have given rise to the Kiolen ; and whether, during the 

 very long interval between these, there appeared the zircon-si- 

 enites, the porphyries and the metaphyres, which seem only to 

 be connected with orographical changes of a less important de- 

 scription. 



7. Progressive Rise of the Land above the Level irf the Sea. 

 — In proposing these different questions I cannot expect that 

 they should all be speedily answered, on account of the small 

 number of sedimentary formations which are visible in Scandi- 

 navia ; but if we cannot supply all the deficiencies of science 

 in relation to those ancient phenomena, we shall perhaps be 

 compensated by the observations which the expedition will 

 have it in their power to make on the phenomena which, in the 

 present times and under our own eyes, prove the mobility of 

 the crust of the globe. Tiiose phenomena, whose traces are 

 observed on the coast, are particularly to be recommended to 

 the attention of an expedition which will have a Government 

 vessel at its disposal. I allude to the change of the level ob- 

 servable on many parts of the coast of Sweden. 



Every one knows that certain points on the coasts of that 

 country are progressively rising above the level of the sea 

 which washes them. I shall not mention the ancient observa- 

 tions of Celsius and Linnaeus, the marks cut on the rocks of 

 the Baltic and the Cattegat, the conclusions deduced by Play- 

 fair, the observations of M. de Buch, the incredulity with 

 which they were at first received, and the reiterated observa- 

 tions which set all doubt at rest. M. Arago, in the Annuaire 

 du Bureau des Longitudes, and Mr Lyell in the Philosophical 

 Transactions, have given to this class of facts all the celebrity 

 which they so justly merit. 



But what is not so generally known, and what renders the 



