DYNAMICAL GEOLOGY. 287 



raised an important objection to the theory of Celsius by 

 pointing out that if the changes were really due to the lowering 

 of the ocean-surface, the diminution should, according to 

 hydrostatic laws, take place quite uniformly, and this was 

 apparently not the case. Playfair therefore attributed the 

 changes to an elevation of the land in consequence of subter- 

 ranean forces. Leopold von Buch also formed the opinion 

 that the Swedish coasts were rising, but neither in his work in 

 1807, nor in Karl von Hoff's historical and critical reviews in 

 1834, was any explanation suggested as to the causes of the 

 movements. 



The Stockholm Academy appointed a Commission to inquire 

 into all the evidences, and the reports in 1820 and 1821 

 entirely corroborated the scientific account of a general 

 extension of large coastal tracts. The upraised mussel-beds 

 near Uddewalla, on the west coast of Sweden, and the raised 

 beaches with marine shells in Norway, had been cited by 

 Buch, Brongniart, and Lyell as proofs of land elevation. 

 Yet the chemist, Professor Jacob Berzelius, in 1835 adhered 

 to the older view; he connected the changes along the coast 

 with sinking of the sea-level in consequence of the cooling of 

 the earth and contraction of the crust. In 1837, Professor 

 Keilhau in Christiania collected all the observations that had 

 been made on coast movement in Norway, and calculated from 

 them that the land had risen 470 to 600 feet since the Diluvial 

 epoch. 



A French expedition was sent to Scandinavia and Lapland, 

 and Dr. E. Robert, the geologist attached to it, was enabled 

 to add to Keilhau's summary a number of supplementary 

 observations in Finland and Lapland. It was thus proved 

 that raised beaches and terraces extended throughout all the 

 northern part of Scandinavia. Bravais, another member of 

 the French expedition during a prolonged stay in Finland, 

 followed the remains of former coast-lines between the Alten 

 Fjord and Hammerfest, and in his papers published 1842-43 

 he described in the Alten Fjord two successive terraces which 

 were not parallel with one another, but converged towards the 

 coast and showed several variations of height at their different 

 parts. This observation was declared by Naumann in his 

 text-book to be incontestable proof that the coast had been 

 elevated. Considerable doubt, however, was thrown upon 

 Bravais's observations a few years later by Robert Chambers 



