THE LAND IN CERTAIN PARTS OF SWEDEN. 15 



tinued series of thin layers of sand, loam, and gravel, in part horizontal, but in some 

 places, and for a limited space, inclined at an angle of more than fifty degrees, with 

 numerous small vertical rents occasionally traversing the beds. Whether these have 

 been occasioned by subterranean movements, or during the drying and settling of 

 the mass when it was first raised above the waters, is a point on which I can offer 

 no conjecture. The inclination of the strata, resembling that in gravel-beds, I attri- 

 bute chiefly to original inequalities in the mode of its deposition. Here, as in other 

 places, I could find no fossils in the beds of pure sand and gravel, nor did I meet 

 with any in the blue clay which seems to crop out from beneath the sand at the 

 bottom of the hill. But fortunately, near the castle at Upsala a thin bed of violet- 

 coloured marl, full of shells, has been cut through at the bottom of a gravel-pit near 

 the top of the ridge. This marl, which forms a horizontal layer only three inches 

 thick, is within about twelve feet of the summit of the ridge, and about eighty above 

 the sea. It contains the Mytilus edulis, Cardium edule, Tellina Baltica, LiUorina 

 llttorea, Paludina ulva ? Both above and below this marl are strata of gravel, and 

 some of the overlying beds contain round boulders a foot or more in diameter. 



This is the only place in Sweden where I met with any fossils in the midst of one 

 of the sand-oasar, or ridges of sand and gravel. The fact of finding the recent shells of 

 the Baltic in such a position appears to me of the highest interest, especially because 

 on the summit of this, as of other ridges, I found large erratic blocks resting imme- 

 diately on the uppermost layers of gravel or fine sand. In that part of the ridge 

 south of the town called Palacksbacken, these blocks are abundant, and are on the 

 very summit, appearing to be all superficial, for I could find none in situ in the deep 

 gravel-pits which intersect the ridge. I examined these blocks in company with Pro- 

 fessor Wahlenberg, and found them to consist of angular masses of gneiss and gra- 

 nite, the larger ones rarely exceeding nine feet in length ; but we measured one 

 which was no less than sixteen feet long, thirteen high, and eight broad. It follows, 

 therefore, that by whatever cause these enormous fragments of granite rocks have 

 been conveyed to their present sites, some of them at least have been transported 

 thither since the Baltic was separated from the ocean and inhabited by the existing 

 species of Testacea. 



I may observe also, that the occurrence of layers of marl containing littoral 

 shells, as above described, in the midst of a stratified ridge of sand and gravel, is 

 opposed to the theory of those geologists who refer the formation of such ridges to 

 a violent flood or debacle rushing from the north. The perfect preservation of the 

 shells at Upsala, and the repeated succession of thin alternating layers of gravel, 

 sand, and loam, which are seen almost everywhere, imply a gradual, and at times a 

 very tranquil, deposition of transported matter. If I am asked for a more probable 

 hypothesis in the room of that to which I object, I may state that these ridges ap- 

 pear to me to be ancient banks of sand and shingle, which have been thrown down 

 at the bottom of the Gulf of Bothnia, in lines parallel to the ancient coast during the 



