AMERICAN 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS. 
[SECOND SERIES.] 
Art. XXX.—On the Relations which exist between the Phe- 
blocks of Northern Europe and the elevation of Scandinavia. 
These relations are the more important, as they admirably ex- 
plain some circumstances which are peculiar to the erratics of 
the north, and of which there is no example in Switzerland. 
These peculiarities are: 1, the occurrence of polished and grooved 
surfaces beneath the present level of the sea: 2, the existence of 
marine shells attached to the polished rocks at a height much 
above the present level of the sea: 3, the presence of marine 
Shells in the midst of the diluvium even at an elevation of eight 
hundred feet : 4, the osars, or ridges of boulders and stones which 
contain the shells of the Baltic. : se 
Among the phenomena which prove so fully the instability of 
the Scandinavian soil, there are some facts which indicate the ele- 
vation of the land, while others on the contrary attest its subsi- 
dence. Thus, we cannot have less equivocal proof of an eleva- 
hon of a country, than the occurrence at a great height and at a 
considerable distance from the coast, of shells now inhabiting 
the adjacent seas, and whose perfect state of preservation leaves 
ho doubt that they lived where they now occur: for had they 
_, * Communicated by the author, through Prof. Acassiz, for this Journal. Trans- 
lated from the French. 
Seconp Srrizs, Vol. III, No, 9.—May, 1847. 40 
