THE LAND IN CERTAIN PARTS OP SWEDEN. 



In these recent strata of loam, sand, and gravel, marine shells have been found at 

 various altitudes, as may be seen by Colonel Nordewall's paper in the Transactions 

 of the Royal Academy, where a ground plan is given of the canal and the surrounding 

 district, of part of which I subjoin a reduced copy *. I found at the Quarnbacken 

 (see diagram, fig. 4.), at the height of about ninety feet above the level of the sea, the 

 same species of shells as those at Solna before mentioned, imbedded in a marly clay, 

 which derives a violet colour from the decomposition of the Mytilus edulis. Again, 

 the same assemblage of shells maybe seen in the Blabacken, or " blue hills," a neigh- 

 bouring locality, where a bed of marl about three feet deep rests on the gneiss at the 

 height of about one hundred feet above the sea. Here the violet colour of the decom- 

 posed Mi/tiliis edulis is so remarkable as to have given a name to the hill. The shells, 

 with the exception of the Mytilus, are in general very entire. The breadth of the 

 Sodertelje valley, between the opposite boundaries of gneiss, varies from about half to 

 three quarters of a mile ; and the newer shelly deposit, which sometimes constitutes 

 a nearly level platform, at the height of sixty feet or more above the canal, has 

 precisely the appearance of the Subapennine formations in Italy, or at the base of 

 the Maritime Alps, where they are seen at inferior elevations, filling the bottom of 

 valleys in the older rocks, or flanking hills of higher antiquity and of inclined strati- 

 fication. It is only by aid of the shells so exactly corresponding to those of the Baltic 

 that the geologist can at once decide on the comparatively modern origin of these 

 Swedish strata. 



Fig. 4. 



Plan of the Canal 



of 



Sodertelje 



BlabacksD 



rtelje 



^ Quam Backen 



The distance between the nearest points of Lake Maeler and the sea, now united 

 by the Sodertelje canal, is nearly a mile and a half English, the general line of the 

 canal being from north-west to south-east, and the depth of the strata cut through 

 varying from fifteen to more than sixty feet. 



First a communication was made which united Lake Maeler with the small lake, 

 or mere, called Maren (see plan) ; and this passage was called the upper channel. 

 Here a horizontal bed of marl was passed through, of a violet colour, like that of the 



* Kongl. Vetenskaps- Academiens Handlingar, 1832. 



