THE LAND IN CERTAIN PARTS OF SWEDEN. 33 



the south of Scania I could not ascertain, either from the testimony of the inhabitants 

 or from any appearances on the coast, that the slightest change of relative level can 

 be detected. The difference of about three feet in a century, indicated by the mark 

 at Lofgrundet, and of about two feet in sixty-four years, by that of Marstrand, are 

 in such complete accordance with the results of the surveys of Bruncrona, Hall- 

 STROM, and others, as to lead me to place entire reliance on the conclusions to which 

 they have arrived from a larger number of data, and respecting a territory of much 

 gi-eater extent. The slight amount of difference between the level of the sea and the 

 marks of 1820 which I observed at Oregrund and Gefle, although corroborating the 

 same result, are undoubtedly in themselves of small value ; and a difference of level 

 amounting only to about four or six inches may be easily attributed to accident or 

 the particular state of the weather at the time of my visit. Subsequent observers 

 might find the same marks submerged beneath the waters ; but I nevertheless be- 

 lieve, that if the summer season and a calm day be selected, so that the circumstances 

 shall correspond with those under which the marks were originally cut, there will be 

 found to have been a real depression of level, to the amount of several inches, in the 

 course of the last fourteen years. 



Be this as it may, I may be allowed to congratulate the scientific world that this 

 wonderful phenomenon is every day exciting increased attention among the philoso- 

 phers of Sweden, and especially of Professor Berzelius, who, in his reports to the 

 Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, has already recorded many valuable observations 

 on the levels of the water of Lake Maeler at different seasons, and who is understood 

 to be now exerting himself to secure more frequent observations in future of the marks 

 in the Bothnian Gulf. It is only by multiplying such measurements, and repeating 

 them within short intervals of time, that we shall be able to determine whether the 

 movement of the land be oscillatory or always in one direction, and whether it be in- 

 termittent or constant. 



Appendix. 



List of Fossil Shells from the Country near Stockholm. 



Names. Observations. 



TeUina Baltica. Var. a. The variety of this shell, found fossil in sand and marl at 

 PI. II. figs. 1. & 2. Solna, Brankyrka, and Sodertelje, where it is associated 



with littoral shells, is smaller, thinner, and deprived of 

 epidermis, resembling those which I collected in the sand 

 on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia and at Solvitzborg. 



MDCCCXXXV. F 



