18 MR. LYELL ON THE PROOFS OF A GRADUAL RISING OF 



boat to pass. So strong is the conviction of the fishermen here, and of the seafaring 

 inhabitants generally, that a gradual change of level, to the amount of three feet or 

 more in a century, is taking place, that they seem to feel no interest whatever in the 

 confirmation of the fact afforded by artificial marks, for they observed to me that 

 they can point out innumerable natural marks in support of the change ; and they 

 mentioned this as if it rendered any additional evidence quite superfluous. 



The sea deepens rapidly near the coast at Oregrund, and there is twenty-eight 

 fathoms water in the bay. Along the shore is a broad band of bare gneiss traversed 

 by granite veins, which ramify in every direction, and consist chiefly of felspar in 

 large crystals. In many places this sloping band of bare rock, having a smooth sur- 

 face, extends up for a hundred paces from the sea, covered only with a scanty coating 

 of lichens. The gneiss, where it approaches within eighteen paces of the sea, is so 

 smooth and polished that it is difficult to walk upon it. The surface swells into those 

 rounded flattened forms which are so common in the forests in the interior of Sweden, 

 where grass is frequently unable to establish itself on so hard a foundation. Not 

 even lichens can grow in some parts where veins and beds of quartz appear ; but trees 

 take root in the clefts of the granite and gneiss, rising amidst vast erratic blocks, 

 resembling those which, in equal numbers and of equal dimensions, crowd the greater 

 part of the shores and islands of the Bothnian gulf. 



From Oregrund I went on to Gefle, about forty miles to the north-west. In a low 

 part of the intervening country, near the village of Skjerplinge, I came to a large 

 tract of stiff blue clay, like that near Upsala, covered with sand six or eight feet deep. 

 In the clay I found the Mytilus edidls and the Tellina Baltica. I was informed that 

 marine shells are met with abundantly at a much higher level in a hill of sand near 

 Skjerplinge, where also, according to tradition, a large iron ling, such as ships are 

 attached to, was formerly found fixed in the soil. 



My attention was repeatedly called to low pastures from one to three miles inland, 

 where the old inhabitants or their fathers remembered that boats and ships had 

 sailed. The traveller would not have suspected such recent conversions of sea into 

 terra Jirma ; but there are few regions where a valley newly gained from the sea may 

 J80 rapidly assume an air of considerable antiquity. Every small island and rock off 

 this coast is covered with wood, and it only requires that the intervening channels 

 and fiords should dry up and become overspread with green turf for the country to 

 wear at once an inland aspect, with open glades and plains surrounded by well- 

 wooded heights. 



Among other stories of wrecked vessels found in the interior, I was told at Gefle 

 that a vessel and an anchor had been found in a hill of sand and gravel at Uggleby, 

 sixteen miles from the sea, in the parish of that name. Colonel Hallstrom tells me 

 that similar traditions are common in Finland, and that a wreck is said to have been 

 found there at Laihela, two miles from the sea. 



On both sides of the river at Gefle I found land gained from the sea, within the 



