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



Blabacken, and containing the Cardium edule. Besides the shells, several buried 

 vessels were found in this channel, some of them apparently of high antiquity, there 

 being no iron in them, and the planks being fixed together by wooden pegs. In an- 

 other place, however, an anchor was dug up, as also, in one spot, some iron nails. In 

 the lower channel, or that which united Lake Maeler with the bay of the sea called 

 Egelsta Wiken, two similar beds of marine shells were found, one at the height of 

 eighteen and the other of forty Swedish feet above the level of the sea. 



But a much more remarkable discovery was made in the lower channel. Here the 

 excavation commenced in a hill, or platform, covered with a forest ; and after digging 

 down about fifty feet through stratified sand, gravel, and clay, they came upon what 

 appears to have been a small wooden house, the site of which is marked on the plan a, 

 fig. 4. The floor of this building was on a level with the sea. Colonel Nordewall 

 has stated in his account, that the mass which covered the house was thirty-four feet 

 thick : but he perhaps wrote ells (a Swedish ell is two feet) ; for Captain Cronstrand, 

 an engineer who superintended the whole excavation, and who accompanied me to the 

 spot, assured me that it was at the depth of about sixty- four feet. In other respects 

 this engineer's account agrees with that of Colonel Nordewall ; but he has enabled 

 me to add some particulars, which I shall now mention. 



The stratification of the mass over the house was very decided, but for the most 

 part of that wavy and irregular kind which would result from a meeting of currents. 

 It contained here and there very coarse gravel, and some boulders of considerable 

 size. At the bottom of the whole, a mass of very fine sand was entered, in which the 

 appearance of the four walls of a square building was discovered. Attention was not 

 paid to this phenomenon soon enough to decide whether there were any remains of a 

 roof. An attempt was made to dig round the walls, and leave them standing ; but 

 the wood was perfectly decomposed, and crumbled down like dust when all support 

 was removed. But when they reached the level of the sea they found the timber of 

 the walls preserved. At the bottom, on what may have constituted the floor of the 

 hut, an irregular ring of stones was found, having the appearance of a rude fireplace, 

 and within these was a heap of charcoal and charred wood. On the outside of the 

 ring was a heap of unburnt fir-wood, broken up as for fuel, the dried needles of the 

 fir and the bark of the branches being still preserved. The building was about eight 

 feet square, and was supposed to have been merely a fishing-hut, occasionally resorted 

 to at the fishing-season. Captain Cronstrand says that the building was enveloped 

 with sand as fine as if blown by the wind. 



I visited the nearest spot at which shells were found, in a deep drain not far from 

 the former site of the fossil house, (see plan, fig. 5.) and am satisfied, from their 

 position and from the occurrence of shells at different spots and heights in exca- 

 vating the " upper channel," that the strata which covered the house, like all the 

 rest cut through by the Sodertelje canal, were marine. It appears evident, therefore, 

 that this building must have been submerged beneath the waters of the Baltic to the 



