Volcanos and Earthquakes. 75 



opinion, " that the whole country, from Frederkhshall'm Swedtih 

 to Abo in Finland, is in the act of rising slowly and insensibly.'' 

 The rising of the Gulf of Bothnia amounts, according to the 

 observations communicated by Hallstrom, from B. 71 to 4. 61 

 feet ; on an average 4. 26 feet during a century,* Beds of sea- 

 shells, found sometimes 200 feet above the present level of the 

 sea, as, for instance, on the sea-coast and on the islands of Ud- 

 devalloy as also on all the sea-coasts of the south of Norway, and 

 which sea-shells consist of such kinds as arc still found living at 

 these places in the sea, prove how much the level of the Baltic 

 has changed even during the time that the present testaceae 

 have inhabited it.-I* But the rising seems to be very unequal 

 at various places. In the north it is more considerable than 

 in the south. On the eastern coast of the Danish islands of 

 M'oen and Seeland, Lyellj; found no indication of a recent 

 elevation of land. The first place along the whole coast of 

 the Baltic, where an elevation is said to have taken place, is 

 the town of Calmar. Beyond the Swedish coast, on the coast 

 of Finland, the inhabitants are perfectly convinced either that 

 the water sinks or the land rises. This remarkable phenomenon 

 has excited a general interest amono^ the Swedish naturalists, 

 and caused continual exact observations of the marks inscribed 

 on the shores of the Gulph of Bothnia. Thus Nilson§ thinks 

 he has found convincing proofs that the most southern part of 

 Sweden is sinking, whilst the remaining part is rising. He has 

 also endeavoured to give probability to the supposition, that the 

 sinking took place, and still takes place, not suddenly, but gra- 

 dually. Forchhammer|| likewise alluded to similar phenomena, 

 in order to prove that elevations in Scandinavia take place not 

 only in different proportions, but that a depression is also going 

 on. He infers from his observations, that the level of the coast 

 of Denmark has varied in a different proportion from that of the 

 Swedish coast, which he ascribes to the feeble earthquakes that 



* Bruncrona u. Hallstrom in Poggend. Ann. t. ii. p. 308. 

 t Berzelius Jahresbericht, 182G, p. 292. 

 + PoggendorfF's Ann. t. xxxviii. p. 64. 



§ Berzelius Jahresbericht, No. 18, p. 386, and Poggendorflf*s Ann. t xliL 

 p. 472. 



II Phil. Mag. ser. iii. v. ii. p. 309, and Poggend. Ann. t. xlii. p. 476. 



