THE LAND. 287 



rable journey through Norway and Sweden, in 1806 and 

 1807. ( 35 ) While the whole coast of Sweden and Pin- 

 land, from Srelvitsborg at the limit of Northern Scania, 

 to Torneo, and from Torneo to Abo, is undergoing a 

 gradual rise amounting to four Prench feet in a century, 

 the southern part of Sweden, according to Nilsson, is being 

 depressed. ( 351 ) The elevating force appears to attain its 

 maximum in the north of Lapland, and to diminish gradu- 

 ally southwards towards Calmar and Sselvitsborg. Lines 

 marking the ancient level of the sea, in pre-historic times, 

 may be traced throughout Norway, ( 352 ) from Cape Lindes- 

 naes to the North Cape, by banks of shells identical 

 with those of the present sea ; these lines have been 

 recently examined and measured with great exactness by 

 Bravais, during his long winter sojourn at Bosekop. The 

 banks rise as high as 600 (640 English) feet above the 

 present level of the sea, and reappear, according to Keilhau, 

 and Eugene Eobert, on the coast of Spitzbergen, opposite to 

 the North Cape, in a N.N.W. direction. Leopold von 

 Buch, who was the first to call attention to the high 

 bank of shells at Tromsoe (lat. 69 40'), has shewn, 

 that the more ancient elevations of the shores washed 

 by the North Sea belong to a series of phenomena wholly 

 different from the gentle and gradual elevation of the 

 Swedish coast in the Gulf of Bothnia. Nor must this latter 

 phenomenon, which has been established by sure historical 

 evidence, be confounded with changes of level caused by 

 earthquakes, as on the coasts of Chili and of Cutch : it has 

 recently led to similar observations in other countries, and 

 instances have been found, in which a sensible subsidence in 

 one part takes place, corresponding to an elevation else- 



VOL. I. X 



