INORGANIC GEOLOGICAL DYNAMICS. 607 



these violent operations are going on. The most 

 celebrated of these cases is Sweden ; the whole of 

 the land from Gottenburg to the north of the Gulf 

 of Bothnia has been supposed in the act of rising, 

 slowly and insensibly, from the surrounding waters. 

 The opinion of such a change of level has long been 

 the belief of the inhabitants ; and was maintained 

 by Celsius in the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. It has since been conceived to be confirmed 

 by various observations of marks cut on the face of 

 the rock; beds of shells, such as now live in the 

 neighbouring seas, raised to a considerable height ; 

 and other indications. Some of these proofs appear 

 doubtful ; but Mr. Lyell, after examining the facts 

 upon the spot in 1834. says, "In regard to the pro- 

 position 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 alluded 

 to 4 ." If this conclusion be generally accepted by 

 geologists, we have here a daily example of the 

 operation of some powerful agent which belongs to 

 geological dynamics ; and which for the purposes of 

 the geological theorist, does the work of the earth- 

 quake upon a very large scale, without assuming its 

 terrors (FA). 



Speculations concerning the causes of volcanoes 

 and earthquakes, and of the rising and sinking of 

 land, are a highly-important portion of this science, 

 at least as far as the calculation of the possible 



1 Phil. Trans. 1835, p. 32. 



