THE LAND IN CERTAIN PARTS OF SWEDEN. 29 



water. My observation was made on the 19th of July 1834, sixty-four years after 

 the mark was cut. Now my boatmen stated that the horizontal line was origi- 

 nally intended to express the lowest level to which the sea fell at the time of dig- 

 ging the Koon canal ; and this information was confirmed by Mr. O. J. Westbeck, 

 who resides in the immediate neighbourhood. On my applying to this gentleman to 

 learn whether the water at the time of my observation might be considered as un- 

 usually low, he said that as the wind was easterly, the sea was certainly below its 

 mean level, but it had by no means reached its extreme point of depression, for there 

 still was water in the Koon canal, immediately opposite his villa ; whereas, after the 

 prevalence of a strong easterly wind for two days, the sea falls so low that certain 

 parts of this canal are dried up. He suggested, therefore, that by measuring the depth 

 of water in those parts of the canal which dry up, and adding that depth to the ten 

 inches which I had already obtained below the mark only half an hour before, I 

 should ascertain the point of extreme low water as compared to that of 1770. We 

 accordingly found that the water in the places alluded to was fourteen inches deep ; 

 so that the lowest water now is two feet below the maximum of depression sixty-four 

 years ago. Mr. Westbeck said that he had always heard from his father that the 

 mark, which was cut the year he was born, was intended to express the lowest level 

 of the sea during the digging of the canal in 1770. 



I have already stated that there is no tide on the coast here, a circumstance which 

 seems very extraordinary ; but all the pilots and seamen agree in asserting the fact. 

 A strong wind off the shore causes the water to fall two or three feet, and to rise as 

 much if it be in the opposite direction. Notwithstanding these occasional oscilla- 

 tions, the inhabitants pretend to determine whether the sea is two or three inches 

 above or below its standard level. I was shown here, as at other places, rocks which 

 forty or fifty years ago could rarely be seen, but are now permanently above water. 

 I was also told of numerous rocky channels where boats could once pass, but which 

 had now grown too shallow, and of meadows which were yielding from time to time 

 a larger quantity of hay, in consequence of their increased extension on the side 

 towards the sea. 



I know not how much further to the south the same signs of a rise of the land have 

 been observed, but it is certain that the narrow frith in which the port of Gothenburg 

 is situated has been gradually filling up, in such a manner as would happen if the same 

 cause of change was cooperating there with the deposition of river-sediment. It is 

 well known that in the sixteenth century the ancient port was placed twenty miles 

 further up, and called Lodese ; and this was afterwards removed further down, and 

 called New Lodese, to distinguish it from what remained of the more ancient har- 

 bour. But now the newer of these places is called Gammle Staden, or the old town, 

 and is a mile or more above Gothenburg. 



On the banks of the river at Gothenburg I found a deposit of blue clay, filled with 

 a great variety of recent marine shells. Among others, Lutraria compressa ; Mactra 



