230 THE FOEEST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



and looks at all this in the light of traditions still in the 

 mouths of the people, which tell of wrecks of ships found 

 on the heights of mountains in the interior of the country, 

 his thoughts are naturally carried back to times in which 

 the waters of the ocean covered the whole of Finland, and 

 only the highest crests of the mountains rose above the 

 waste of waters ; and it is felt to be beyond doubt that 

 the sea must have receded only as the land rose by up- 

 heaval, hills, heights, and high lying places rising ever 

 higher and higher. The sea would be caught in innumer- 

 able little basons in the valleys and depressions, but, fed 

 there by springs and melted snow, its water diluted and 

 carried away, the water would gradually lose its saltness, 

 and would come to form that inland archipelago, that 

 coronet of inland seas, which in the midland and eastern 

 portion of the country catches the eye unceasingly. Thus 

 does Finland appear as a country which has escaped from 

 the sea, and by slow degrees delivered herself from the 

 waters of the two Baltic gulfs which still enfold her, as if 

 unwilling to give up their hold. For even to-day this 

 thousand-year-old process of nature may be seen to be 

 still going on. 



'Looking along the coasts of Finland everywhere are 

 seen indications that the sea is slowly, but gradually, 

 receding. Places which two centuries ago were on the 

 coast now find themselves a considerable distance from the 

 sea; different havens on the coast are becoming useless 

 from the upheaval of the land; lakes and rivers are 

 turning shallow, as through that upheaval they have a 

 greater fall in the flow of their waters to the sea. Along 

 the western coast of Finland are every year extensive 

 stretches of land gained from the sea, and new islands 

 arise out of the waves ; and recorded elevations above the 

 sea level, which are scarcely a hundred years old, testify 

 to the same fact. The Fortress at Abo is now some feet 

 higher above the sea level than it was a century back. 



' This upheaval of the land varies in different localities. 

 It is less marked on the south coast and in the Gulf of 



