366 MEMOIR OF LEOPOLD VON BUCH. 



tion of the waters. " How singular a phenomenon ! " exclaims Von Buch ; " and 

 to how many questions does it give rise"?" After due consideration he adds: 

 "It is certain that the level of the sea cannot subside ; the equilibrium of the 

 waters forbids it. Yet the phenomenon of their retreat is no less unquestion- 

 able, and there remains but one admissible idea — that of a general upheaval of 

 the laud from Fredericshall to Abo, and perhaps to St. Petersburg." 



When this striking idea was annoiinced, the full importance of its bearing 

 could not be at once foreseen. The demonstration of an upheaval of part of 

 our continent is the discovery which has most strongly contributed to fortify 

 the new theory of volcanoes and that of the origin of mountains, while it has 

 given the most general insight into the continual effort, the incessant reaction 

 of the interior of the globe against its envelope. 



At the extremity of the peninsula other phenomena awaited the observer. 

 The eternal snows, Avhich hover in an atmosphere still capable of developing 

 or<ranized bein<rs, and which, in the torrid zone, maintain themselves at the 

 level of the summit of Mont Blanc, occupy, ou the coasts of Finmark, hills 

 scarcely more than five or six times the height of our tallest buildings. Here 

 our ingenious Rcgnard had once essayed to brave the rigors of a region then 

 deemed inaccessible, and, in view of the interminable wastes of ice, had described 

 himself in verses which, he says, "were destined to be read only by the bears," 

 as having reached the end of the world : 



Ilic tandem stetimus nobis ubi defuit orbis. 



Much further than this end of the tcorld, and beyond the polar circle, after 

 the long and dismal winter, M. Von Buch was witness of that horcal summer, 

 so curious and so little known, which he calls the season of day — a day which 

 lasts for two months. Writing on the 4th of July, he says : " The continual 

 presence of the sun and constant serenity of the air give to the days of these 

 countries a peculiar charm. At the approach of midnight, when that orb pro- 

 longs its course towards the north, the whole region enjoys a perfect calm; the 

 clearness is at every moment the same. It is only by the sinking of the mer- 

 cury that the advance of the evening can be ascertained. After no long interval 

 all nature begins once more to be reanimated ; the mists rise from the surface 

 of the earth ; small waves on the waters show that the air which comes from 

 the north presses with more force towards the south. The sun ascends from 

 the horizon, its rays operate, and the murmur of rivulets, swelled by the melting 

 snow, sensibly increases, until, through the effect of another night, one feels 

 nothing but a soothing warmth." 



Nor is Scandinavia less characterized by its inhabitants than its physical 

 phenomena. Its icy waters and its lichens suffice to sustain the agility and 

 vigor of the reindeer; that noble and docile companion of the nomadic life of 

 the Laplander, a specimen of our race who bears in his stvmted form and rustic 

 manners the impress of the zone into which he has ventured to introduce our 

 common humanity. By his side, but v/ith marked differences, appear the Nor- 

 wegian of the coasts, disdainful of his shrunken neighbor, and the agricultural 

 Finn, who, in his softened manners, has carried civilization to the limits of the 

 liabitable world, and even aspires to borrow from us our most refined enjoy- 

 ments. " I have seen," says Von Buch, "in a town near the North Cape, a 

 public library, in which, by the side of the Danish poets, appeared the master- 

 pieces of Corncille, Moliere, and Racine." 



As a scientific authority. Von Buch now stood so high that he might avcII 

 feel conscious of being a master in the field of higher generalizations, a field so 

 vast and so rarely attained. His return was greeted with respect by his 

 country,, his academy, by learned Europe in general. Recurring to the theatre; 

 of his earlier labors, he traversed, for several following years, the mountaia 

 chains of Oent;"al Europe, Avith an attention always fixed on the grand ideas 



