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



features of those parts of the country which I examined answered well to all the 

 conditions of such a theory. In passing from Gefle to Fahlun, and from thence to 

 Sala, I found the number of erratic blocks very great, as now on the islands and 

 shores of the Bothnian Gulf; whereas on the opposite or western coast they are 

 smaller in size and quantity, both in the interior of the country around Uddevalla 

 and Gothenburg, and at the sea-side in the contiguous Skiir. I saw some considerable 

 l)ouiders overlying the deposits of recent shells at Capellbacken near Uddevalla, a 

 phenomenon analogous to that described near Upsala, where these huge erratic blocks 

 repose upon the sand-hills, characterized by fossil shells of Baltic species. The trans- 

 portation, therefore, of these rocky fragments into their present position continued 

 after the period when the modern shelly formations of both coasts were accumulated ; 

 and it may be inferred from several facts mentioned in this memoir, that the drifting 

 of such blocks may now be going on by means of ice every year. I am at a loss to 

 conceive from what data some geologists have inferred the simultaneous dispersion 

 of the erratic blocks of the North of Europe ; but it would carry me into too wide a 

 digression should I endeavour to controvert that theory. I can, however, confirm the 

 statement of Professor Hauswann, that, in the ridges of sand and gravel, the largest 

 blocks occur in the highest parts of each ridge ; a fact which seems to me to point 

 to the mode in which they may have been drifted into their present position. For if 

 these ridges were originally sand-banks in the sea, as the marine shells found in 

 some of them incline me to believe, the summits of such banks would have arrested 

 the progress of ice-islands which might transport fragments of rock in the man.ner 

 before suggested. 



In regard to the proposition, that the land in certain parts of Sweden is gradually 

 rising, I have no hesitation in assenting to it after my visit to the districts above al- 

 luded to. Independently of the geological proofs derived from strata containing recent 

 shells, the evidence in favour of an upward movement consists of two kinds : first, the 

 testimony of the inhabitants ; and secondly, the altered level indicated byartificial marks 

 cut in the rocks. More than one generation has passed away since Celsius recorded 

 the stories of pilots, fishermen, and the inhabitants of the two opposite coasts at Gefle 

 and Gulholmen respecting the increased extension of land and apparent sinking of 

 the sea. It was at the same places that I heard precisely similar accounts from per- 

 sons now living ; so identical, indeed, that if related, they would appear mere repe- 

 titions of the words of Celsius, with scarcely any change except in the names of the 

 witnesses. But I am aware, from what I myself experienced when reading formerly on 

 this subject, that it is not easy to convey to the minds of those who do not visit the 

 country, the impression made by the testimony now under consideration, deriving as 

 it does almost all its weight from an accumulation of minute particulars, each, sepa- 

 rately considered, of but small importance. 



From what I saw at Calmar and Stockholm as compared with Oregrund and Gefle, 

 I have no doubt that the rate of elevation is very different in different places ; and in 



