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Personal Observations on Terraces, and other Proofs of Changes 
in the Relative Level of Sea and Land, in Scandinavia.* 
By Ropert CHAMBERS, Hsq., F.R.S.E. and V. P.S. A. Se. 
(With a Plate and Map.) Communicated by the Author. 
The remarkable proofs which Scandinavia affords, of changes 
in the relative level of sea and land, have for many years at- 
tracted the attention, not only of the native, but of several 
eminent foreign geologists. The observations made by these 
inquirers are more or less generally known. They refer to 
beds of shells, identical in species with those of the present 
coasts, in parts of the country far inland, and elevated con- 
siderably above the present sea level; remains of serpule, 
balani, and other marine animals, adhering to the rocks in cer- 
tain inland situations; terraces at different heights above 
the sea, which have evidently been formed by that element, 
whether appearing as detrital deposits, charged with shells or 
otherwise, or as indentations in rocky coasts, a result of the 
wearing agency of the waves. Attention has also been drawn, 
as is well known, to an apparent rise of parts of the Scandi- 
navian Peninsula towards the south, at a slow but steady 
rate ; a phenomenon in which we seem to have presented to 
our living eyes some remains of that force, whatever it is, by 
which the greater changes of ancient times were effected. 
In a tour of Norway and Sweden, during the summer of 
the present year, I had an opportunity of making some per- 
sonal observations on the phenomena connected with the 
changes of the relative level of sea and land ; and of these 
I shall lay an account before the Society, along with a few 
illustrations which may be of service in helping out descrip- 
tion. 
I shall first allude briefly to a few elevated alluvial forma- 
tions in the southern part of Norway. 
At the head of one of the branches of the Christiania fiord, 
where the busy mercantile town of Drammen is situated, a 
river, named, from its clayey banks, Lir, enters the sea. 
* Read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Dec. 3, 1849. 
