240 FOSSIL MEN. 



with the modern fauna, and objects of chipped and 

 polished stone are contemporaneous. 



Further, the physical changes which have occurred 

 in Sweden within the Modern period are most instruc- 

 tive. For example, in enlarging the harbour of Ystad, 

 in 1869, there was found at the depth of eleven feet 

 below the sea level, a forest rooted in situ, and covered 

 with a bed of peat, with freshwater shells, and this 

 with about seven feet of marine sand. The peat con- 

 tained weapons of stone and bronze, and a knife-handle 

 referable to the 12th century, and the marine sand 

 many objects, the oldest of which are referred to the 

 middle ages. This evidence of great subsidence, 

 growth of peat, and deposition of marine beds within 

 modern times, shows how cautious we should be in 

 referring superficial deposits to remote ages, or in 

 supposing that changes of level necessarily require 

 vast periods. This caution is more especially necessary 

 with respect to the growth of peat, the period required 

 for which, as tested by actual observation in Ireland, 

 Scotland, and even in France, has been absurdly ex- 

 aggerated in the case of the peats of Denmark and of 

 the Somme valley.* It is to be observed, in connection 

 with this, that the land of northern Sweden is now 

 rising, and that there seems evidence in raised beaches 

 that in the earlier part of the Recent period there was 

 still greater depression than that evidenced by the 

 peat and submerged forest of Ystad. Thus we have, 



* See an able summary of the facts in Southall's " Epoch 

 of the Mammoth." 



