Relative Level of Sea and Land in Scandinavia. 81 
space ; for while the terraces towards the south are chiefly 
indentations in soft matter, those of Varg Sund are chiefly 
sections made in the rocky cliffs,—true terraces of erosion. 
In these northern terraces, however, the lines are in some 
places continued from a rocky hill-face to a soft grassy slope, 
changing from a cut in the rocks to a mere impression on 
the detrital surface, without any change in their direction or 
inclination. The appearance of two such markings along 
about twenty-five miles of coast is calculated to arrest the 
attention of every intelligent stranger ; and even the natives, 
who are chiefly Laplanders, have not failed to remark them, 
and to attribute them to the agency of the sea, though not 
doubting that the sea has simply retired from two several 
heights at which it had formerly stood. No one on the spot 
seems to have ever thought it worth while to inquire whether 
they observe one level, or at what height they stand in any 
place above the sea. 
When I speak of the two lines as distinct, 1 mean that 
they are so strongly marked as to be visible from a con- 
siderable distance. For example, a person Standing on one 
side of Varg Sund, though it is fully three miles broad, 
can, in tolerably clear weather, easily see the lines passing 
along the opposite coast. (See Plate III., Upper View.) When 
narrowly inspected, those designated as terraces of erosion 
are found to be produced by a true mechanical incision of 
the rock, sometimes leaving a ledge with a precipitous cliff 
overhanging it, sometimes consisting only of a rough groove 
across the mountain-side, without any distinct ledge being 
left,—sometimes, again, under a form intermediate to these 
two in all imaginable degrees. Very frequently, when wish- 
ing to examine a portion of the line, though it may at a little 
distance have appeared sufficiently palpable, it is found on 
near inspection to be obscure and indeterminate, the eye in 
that case not taking in at once a sufficient amount of the 
line to produce a distinct impression, and the immediate 
objects appearing rough and confused. In other places a 
well-defined section is offered for inspection. For example, 
at one part of the prominent rock called Quaenklubb (see 
above view), the upper line is a terrace thirty paces broad, 
VOL. XLVIII. NO. XCV.—JAN. 1850. F 
