402 LEVEL OF THE BALTIC. 



ly two feet ; but it is not yet known whether it decreases 

 in a regular manner between these two places. 



Some authors consider the facts related by MM. 

 Bruncrona and Halstrom, as deciding the question in fa- 

 vour of those who believe in a lowering of the level of 

 the Baltic. The editor of the Annalen der Physik * goes 

 farther, and seems to consider it as confirming the opi- 

 nion of a general lowering of the level of the sea. In 

 support of this opinion, he adduces the traditions and 

 observations of the natives of Otaheite and of the Mo- 

 luccas and Sunda Islands, regarding the retreat of the 

 sea in several parts of their coast. We are disposed to 

 stand neutral in this matter. The geographers who have 

 collected the greatest number of facts relating to the le- 

 vel of the inland seas, and of the ocean in its various re- 

 gions, find nearly as many in favour of a rise as in favour 

 of a fall of level. The very distribution of contrary in- 

 dications, leads them to believe in a partial displacement 

 of the mass of waters from one region towards another, 

 and even from the one side of an inland sea towards the 

 opposite side ; a displacement which might be owing to 

 fugitive or more or less durable causes, such as a varia- 

 tion of temperature in the polar regions, the action of 

 winds and of currents, modified by the greater or less 

 quantity of water in the rivers that feed the different ba- 

 sins, upon the sides opposed to their direction. 



1824, St. 12. p. 443. 



Malt Brun. Precis de la Geogr. Univers. T. ii. p. 459. ; Cat- 

 teau Calleville, TabL de la Mer Bait. T. i. p. 158, 188. 



