276 = Natural History of Volcanos and Earthquakes. 
a gradual sinking of the level of the Baltic. Playfair,* how- 
ever, remarked, as early as the year 1802, that an elevation of 
the land may be assigned as the cause of this phenomenon with 
more probability than a sinking of the water. This supposition, 
he thinks, accords with Hutton’s theory, according to which the 
continents have been actually raised by subterraneous powers, 
and are even now supported by them in their place. Lastly, Von 
Buch,+ without having seen Playfair’s work, gave his opinion, 
“that the whole country, from Frederickshall in Sweden to Abo 
in Finland, is in the act of rising slowly and insensibly.” The 
rising of the Gulf of Bothnia amounts, according to the obser 
vations communicated by Hillstrém, from 3.71 to 4.61 feet ; on 
an average 4.26 feet during a century.{ Beds of sea-shells, 
found sometimes 200 feet above the present level of the sea, as, — 
for instance, on the sea-coast and on the islands of Uddevalla, 
as also on all the sea-coasts of the south of Norway, and which 
sea-shells consist of such kinds as are still found living at these 
places in the sea, prove how much the level of the Baltic has 
changed even during the time that the present testacea have M- 
habited it.§ But the rising seems to be very unequal at various 
places. In the north it is more considerable than in the south. 
On the eastern coast of the Danish islands of Méen and See 
land, Lyell|| found no indication of a recent elevation of land. 
The first place along the whole coast of the Baltic, where an 
elevation is said to have taken place, is the town of Calmar. 
Beyond the Swedish coast, on the coast of Finland, the inhab- 
itants are perfectly convinced, either that the water sinks or the 
land rises. This remarkable phenomenon has excited a general 
interest among the Swedish naturalists, and caused continual 
exact observations of the marks inscribed on the shores of the 
Gulf of Bothnia. Thus Nilson{ thinks he has found convile 
cing proofs that the most southern part of Sweden is sinking, 
whilst the remaining part is rising. He has also endeavored to 
See ee 
* Illustrations of the Huttonian theory. 
t Reise durch Norwegen und Lappland, t. ii. p. 389. 
{ Bruncrona u. Hallstrém in Poggend. Ann. t. ii. p. 308. 
§ Berzelius Jahresbericht, 1426 92. 
|| Poggendorff’s Ann. t. xxxviii, p. 64. és 
I Berzelius Jahresbericht, No. 18, p. 386, and Poggendorff’s Ann. t. xlii, P- 
472, 
7 on 
err 
