488 



NA TURE 



[Marc/i 21, 1 J 



needed light on many points hitherto obscured in 

 doubt." 



The similarity of the coronas of 1867 and 1878 was one 



(see " Chemistry of the Sun ") the possible meteoric origin 

 of many solar phenomena, and pointed out that if this were 

 so, there must be an equatorial ring to produce them. The 



of the points relied upon when I subsequently discussed I recent development of the meteoric theory suggests that 



Fig. 3, — Phenomena observed curing the total solar eclipse of January i, 1889 (see Nature, March 7, p. 436). 



among the most important observations to be made at 

 future eclipses will be a direct comparison of the spec- 

 trum of the corona with the low temperature spectrum 

 of meteoritic dust. It may be that some of the photo- 



graphs taken during the last ecHpse may give us some 

 information on this point, but so far nothing is known. 



J. Norman Lockyer. 



ON THE GRADUAL RISING OF THE LAND 

 IN SWEDEN. 



A LTHOUGH we find in a work by Urban Hjarne, 

 -^~^ printed in 1702, some remarks on the level of the 

 sea in the Baltic, and the old shore-lines of the island of 

 Gothland, the honour of having for the first time raised 

 this question seriously, and of having subjected it to 

 scientific investigation, belongs to Emanuel Swedenborg, 

 who, in 1 7 19, published a work entitled " On Proofs from 

 Sweden of the Level of the Sea, and the Past World's 

 Strong Flood and Ebb." From the condition of the 

 rocks in West Gothia ; from fossils in horizontal chalk 

 and marl beds ; from shell-banks situated high above the 

 actual level of the sea ; from skeletons of whales and 

 wrecks of ships found far inland; from the structure of 

 the sand-hills and from the round stones found therein ; 

 from erratic blocks (or, as Swedenborg calls them, " stones 

 that are spread all over the world ") ; from giants' bowls ; 

 from the shore-lines on Halle and Hunneberg (mountains 

 in West Gothia) ; from the species of fishes existing in 

 lakes at great elevations ; and, finally, from the many 

 proofs of the fall of the sea-level in the Baltic, — from all 

 this, Swedenborg drew the conclusion that the former 

 level of the sea in Sweden was some 400 feet above the 

 present one. These changes he attributed in part to an 

 alteration in the velocity of the earth's rotation and the 

 period of rotation of the moon, whereby the water at the 

 Pole is forced towards the equator. He also assumed 

 that as the Baltic lies at a higher level than the Western 

 Sea, the water therein gradually decreases. 



Swedenborg's work, which suggested many points 

 respecting the history of the world that have been 

 hotly debated to the present day, was at first not under- 

 stood, and continued to be almost ignored by the scien- 

 tific world. But it was the immediate cause of analogous 



researches begun by Prof. Anders Celsius, in 1724, along 

 the coast of the Baltic, the results of which he em- 

 bodied in a paper published, in 1743, in the Proceedings 

 of the Royal Academy of Sciences, entitled " Remarks on 

 the Decrease of the Water in the Baltic, as well as in 

 the Western Sea." 



Setting aside all other periods dealt with by Sweden- 

 borg, Celsius devotes himself exclusively to the changes 

 in the sea-level which have taken place in historical times. 

 He adduces several examples, tending to show that har- 

 bours and roadsteads on our shores have become shallow, 

 and that rocks have gradually risen above sea-level ; that 

 ample depth for seine-fishmg existed where there is now 

 a shallow ; that the appellations " island" and " holm " 

 are frequently used on the coast for uplands surrounded 

 by lowlands, the name " sound " for bights or dry land ; 

 that flat rocks at the level of the sea, formerly valuable 

 on account of seals gathering therein, have become value- 

 less by having risen too high above the sea ; and that 

 anchors and wrecks have been found in inland peat-bogs. 

 He further compares measurements of the rising of the 

 land extending over 168 years, and comes to the conclusion 

 that at Gefle (on the Baltic), during 100 years, the land rose 

 from 41 to 47|- inches, and, on the opposite side of the 

 Bothnia Sea, from 41 to 50 inches, being an average of 

 45 inches. Celsius also proves a similar rising on the 

 west coast, and from these facts he infers that the entire 

 Scandinavian peninsula is gradually rising. Celsius 

 further calculates the area of the land thus won from the 

 sea since the days of Pytheas, and finally, for the benefit 

 and instruction of coming generations, has a rock at Lof- 

 grundet, off Gefle, carefully marked, this being the first 

 scientific water-marking of the rising of the land in 

 Sweden. As regards the fall of the sea, Celsius is of 

 opinion that it is partly due to the transformation of 

 water into earth through plants, and partly to the flowing 



