THE LAND IN CERTAIN PARTS OF SWEDEN. 27 



of drying the fresh paint, with which it had been just covered ; but the islanders 

 suppose the measure to have been taken from the bottom, or point where the staple 

 enters the rock, which seems most probable. Curiosity led a great many of the 

 inhabitants to accompany me ; and when I declared that the height of the ring was 

 seven inches less above the water than that recorded by Bruncrona, many of the 

 older men with one accord pronounced this to be impossible, and said that the for- 

 mer observation must have been incorrect, for that the sea must, on the contrary, 

 have fallen since 1820. Some of them affirmed that the pilot who received orders in 

 1820 to make the measurement was ignorant in what manner to proceed, the place 

 of the ring not being perpendicularly over the water, and he having no instrument 

 for levelling, so as to ascertain that the line which he first carried out from the ring 

 was strictly horizontal. Whether there was any foundation for this charge I cannot 

 pretend to decide ; but I mention it as proving that the islanders believe that there 

 is a change of level going on. It may be useful to those who may make future 

 measurements to state what length of line it required to reach from the iron staple 

 of the ring to the nearest point of the rock to which the sea comes up, this point 

 being now exactly in the direction north-west and by north of the ring. I stretched 

 the rope from one angle to another of the rock, not applying it to the surface of the 

 intervening hollows, and found its length to be fifteen feet five inches and a half. As 

 the GuUeskar, however, is by no means well chosen for the facility of observations, I 

 had a new mark cut on the face of a vertical cliff on the south side of the harbour, 

 about a hundred yards from the post-house. I subjoin a copy of the mark, the lower 

 part of which was cut in my presence, and which the chief pilot pro- 

 mised to see completed. The horizontal line was cut six inches above 

 the water-level, and the vertical line at the right end of it, six inches in 

 length, was terminated at the bottom by a short cross line, which the 

 surface of the water just covered. The vertical depth of water below 

 the mark was four feet two inches and a half. I may suggest, that 

 whenever horizontal lines or any marks are made, like that of St. Olof 's Stone be- 

 fore mentioned, not at the level of the sea, but at a certain height above it, on a ver- 

 tical face of rock, there should always be a perpendicular line cut down to the then 

 existing level of the water, to facilitate subsequent observations and prevent mistakes. 

 Marks cut at given heights above the standard level are perhaps the best, as they are 

 not concealed by a temporary rise of the water. 



Before leaving Gulholmen I visited the Skefverskar, an isolated rock which, ac- 

 cording to the testimony of several old people, was always covered, except at very low 

 water, about forty years ago. In their younger days, before the year 1799, when the 

 present church of Gulholmen was built, they went to church at Morlanda, and passed 

 near this rock, the exposure of the summit of which was a well-known sign to them 

 of a particular state of the weather. This rock is now always seen except when the 

 sea is very high. I found the highest point of it to be sixteen inches above the level 



E 2 



