CHAP. III. UPRAISED STRATA IN SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 57 



are now sixt}^ feet higher than the surface of the Baltic. In 

 the neighborhood of these recent strata, both to the north- 

 west and south of Stockholm, other deposits similar in mine- 

 ral composition occur, which ascend to greater heights, in 

 which precisely the same assemblage of fossil shells is met 

 with, but without any intermixture, so far as is yet known, 

 of human bones or fabricated articles. 



On the opposite or western coast of Sweden, at Uddevalla, 

 post-tertiary strata, containing recent shells, not of that 

 brackish-water character peculiar to the Baltic, but such as 

 now live in the Northern Ocean, ascend to the height of 200 

 feet; and beds of clay and sand of the same age attain ele- 

 vations of 300 and even 600 feet in Norway, where they 

 have been usually described as " raised beaches." They are, 

 however, thick deposits of submarine origin, spreading far 

 and Avide, and filling valleys in the granite and gneiss, just 

 as the tertiary formations, in different parts of Europe,. cover 

 or fill depressions in the older rocks. 



Although the fossil fauna characterizing these upraised 

 sands and clays consists exclusivel}" of existing northern 

 species of testacea, it is more than probable that they may 

 not all belong to that division of the post-tertiarj^ strata 

 which we are now considering. If the contemporary mam- 

 malia were known, the}'- would, in all likelihood, be found to 

 be referable, at least in part, to extinct species; for, accord- 

 ing to Loven (an able living naturalist of Norway), the 

 species do not constitute such an assemblage as now inhabits 

 corresponding latitudes in the German Ocean. On the con- 

 trary, they decidedly represent a more arctic fauna. In 

 order to find the same species flourishing in equal abundance, 

 or in many cases to find them at all, we must go northAvards 

 to higher latitudes than Uddevalla in Sweden, or even nearer 

 the pole than Central Norway. 



Judging by the uniformity of climate noAV prevailing from 



