254 M. Bohtlink on the Mountai7is in Scandinavia. 



of the furrows. It is to this influence that we must ascribe the devia- 

 tions which the furrows present in the south of Sweden, towards the At- 

 lantic Ocean, and the striking manner in which their direction turns to 

 the north on the eastern side of Lapland towards the Icy Ocean. Small 

 valleys, when they are narrow and bordered with high walls of rock, as 

 happens so often in Norway, determine the direction of the furrows, 

 which follow the longitudinal axis of the valley ; but on the heights which 

 bound these narrow valleys the normal direction is again observed, some- 

 times forming an angle of more than 60^ with that of the valley. 



When a covering of sand or earth protects the rocks against the action 

 of the atmosphere, they likewise appear as much polished and furrowed to 

 a height of more than 8000 feet, as when their base is still washed by the 

 sea ; and even below the level of the sea, as far as the eye can penetrate 

 through clear and calm water, the friction of the rocks is equally distinct. 



The polished and farrowed rocks of gneiss and granite, although be- 

 longing to the hardest crystalline rocks, cannot afford us an estimate of 

 the immense destructive force of the natural phenomenon which has ope- 

 rated upon them, because they do not shew us the magnitude of the parts 

 which have been carried away. But the perfectly horizontal strata of the 

 transition-formation, divided into insulated masses covered with sheets 

 of trap, which form the table-shaped mountains of Huneberg, Halleberg, 

 Billengen, and KiunckuUe, to the south-east of lake Wener, among which 

 the Kiunekulle rises to more than 700 feet above the plain, shew us, by 

 -iie correspondence of the strata composing them, that these masses must 

 have at first formed a continuous whole, and covered the entire country 

 vvithout interruption. In fact, we find only gneiss with polished surfaces 

 m the broad valleys which separate these hills from each other. 

 ■ On the sheltered extremity or lee-side {Lee seite) of these hills, and 

 principally of Huneberg and Halleberg, we observe a kind of tail formed 

 of detached blocks torn from the transition and trap rocks ; but on the 

 polished side {Stos seite), on the contrary, we find no block having a si- 

 milar origin. 



In order to explain the violent currents which have been capable not 

 only of pushing along huge blocks of rock, on rocks m situ, and producing 

 the grooved appearances in the latter, but still further of carrying away 

 completely to great extents masses of the softer silurian rocks, I am of 

 opinion that we must admit of there having taken place a sudden eleva- 

 tion of all the mountainous parts of Scandinavia. 



This elevation may have begun under a considerable depth of se^- 

 water. We are led to make this supposition, in the first place, to ob- 

 tain in the mass of water a sufficient pressure to drive before it blocks 

 of rock over considerable inequalities of surface ; and, moreover, because 

 in Scandinavia, Finland, Lapland, and the surrounding countries, we 

 find, to the height of 800 feet, the most unquestionable marks of the con- 

 stant retreat of the sea, occasioned by a continual rise of the land. In 

 consequence of this circumstance, Scandinavia, duringthefirsthalf of the 

 alluvial period, was still an island ; and the tongues of land of Kussian 



