Scientific Intelligence. — Geology. 4S9 



Coast of Finla/id, hy K. E. Von Baek. — I have questioned the 

 naval officers employed on the survey of the coast of Finland, 

 as to the opinions which prevail thei'e regarding the alterations 

 of the level of the sea. Hitherto the expedition has been em- 

 ployed only on the south coast, as the extraordinary number 

 of bays and small islands retards greatly its progress. On this 

 south coast there is at least no general opinion among the fisher- 

 men respecting the sinking of the level of the sea, or the ele- 

 vation of blocks of stone and rocky points. The older collect- 

 ed accounts also of this phenomenon on the coast of Finland 

 relate only to the coast as far down as the neighbourhood 

 Abo ; but it is said that, on the south coast of Finland, the 

 bottom of the sea and the position of the blocks are extremely 

 changeable, so that, at places where a number of large blocks 

 lie together, these sometimes suddenly disappear, and, perhaps, 

 coarse sand or some other bottom is found at a much less con- 

 siderable depth, inasmuch as a new deposit has been formed on 

 the blocks. Sometimes, on the other hand, such a deposit has 

 been carried away. These changes have been ascribed partly 

 to the power of moving water, and partly to that of ice. The 

 ice, on these extremely indented coasts, not only attains a 

 considerable thickness, partly owing to the small quantity 

 of salt contained in the water, and partly to the enclosed 

 form of the Gulf of Finland ; but also, being broken up by 

 storms, it becomes heaped up in the same manner as has been 

 observed, and so graphically described by Wrangell as occur- 

 I'ing in the Frozen Ocean. It is a necessary consequence that 

 blocks should be transported by these masses of ice. Two 

 examples of such removals of masses of granite, which the 

 pilot Ziwolka has communicated to me from his journal, are 

 among the most remarkable of those respecting which we have 

 authentic information. Hence, I think it proper to lay them 

 before the Academy, and so much the more, because botli 

 cases have occurred rather recently ; and if there should be 

 any error or incorrectness in the account, it would be easy to 

 obtain fuller information. At all events, more detailed parti- 

 culars and drawings would be desirable. One of the instances 

 is particularly remarkable, from the height to which the tra- 

 velled stone has been carried. Near Kittleholm, in the vicini- 



