Fuly 8, 1886] 
NATURE 
228 
Thus, the remains of plants and animals in clay, peat, 
and shell deposits inform us ¢hat the gaps tn the extension 
of the species in Norway may be explained by the varying 
events of times long gone by. 
Since the Glacial Age the relation between sea and 
land in Norway has changed. Formerly the sea was in 
some places upwards of 600 feet higher than at present.! 
The clay at that time deposited on the sea-bottom, and 
the shell deposits formed near the shore, contain, as Profs. 
M. Sars and Kjerulf have taught us, remains of Arctic 
animals even in the southernmost parts of the country. 
There is a difference of opinion between savazts whether 
this alteration of the shore-line is due to a rising of the 
land or the sinking of the sea, or to both. ‘There is 
further some dispute about the manner in which the level 
became altered, some maintaining that it took place 
suddenly at intervals, whilst others believe that it is the 
result of a gradual and continuous process. The marks 
left by the sea seem at first glance to corroborate the first 
of these theories. Thus, inthe lower parts of our valleys 
we find along the river-courses terraces of sand, pebbles, 
and clay, one behind and above the other right up to the 
highest old shore-line. The terraces, of which Kjerulf, 
pre-eminently amongst others, has given us particulars, 
have an even surface and a_ steep declivity outwards 
against the mouth of the valley. They contain some- 
times remains of sea animals. Under a higher level of 
the sea the river carrie] down sand and gravel to its 
mouth, just as in the present day banks and bars are 
formed at the estuary of our rivers. And the terraces 
seem to indicate that the changes in the level were broken 
by periods of rest. During the latter the river had time 
to form a bank, which rose comparatively rapidly ; the 
next period of rest gave occasion to the formation of 
another terrace, and soon. But this theory has to com- 
bat many obstacles, because the terraces lie often, as 
Prof. Sexe has shown, even in valleys situated near each 
other, at different elevations. The professor is of opinion 
that step-like terraces may be formed even under a 
gradual and steady rising, if the carrying-power of the 
river is subjected to changes. Our theory may therefore 
probably also be applicable for explaining the terraces, 
because, if long periods with milder climate have alternated 
with others whose climate was more severe, it is evident 
that the volume of water, and thus the carrying-power of 
the current, may have altered. Perhaps the rivers have 
at certain times carried down floating ice, at others not, 
and the thaw in the spring must have increased the 
carrying-power. Wecan thus understand why the cor- 
responding terraces in valleys near each other do not 
always lie at the same elevation. Their rivers differ in 
size, and when the carrying-power diminishes a big river 
will retain the strength to form a terrace longer than a 
small one. 
Besides these terraces, which are particularly con- 
spicuous in the short steep valleys on the west coast of 
Norway, and on account of their regularity must excite 
the admiration of every one who sees them, there are 
other equally striking marks of the old sea-levels, viz. 
the so-called “ Strandlinjer ’—shore-lines—which are 
known chiefly through the researches of Prof. Mohn 
and Dr. Karl Pettersen. 
When travelling through the fjords and sounds, par- 
ticularly in Northern Norway, one sees here and there 
horizontal lines drawn along the mountain-sides, some- 
times several hundred feet above the sea. They are not 
always equally marked, but appear often remarkably 
clear ; sometimes they look like roads or railway-lines, 
They are always horizontal, or nearly so, and must, 
_ * The depth of the peatin the parts which were formerly below the sea 
increases with the height above its surface, because the formation of the 
peat commenced long before the lowest-lying parts had risen above the surface 
From the remains of plants found in the various peat layers we may there- 
fore learn how the Norwegian flora was composed during the various phases 
of the rising of the land. 
therefore, be remains of an old sea-shore. Often 
two parallel lines are seen running one above the 
other in the same place; and on closer inspection 
it will be discovered that they are hollowed out of 
the rock itself. They have a surface sometimes many 
feet broad, and are bounded behind by a more or less 
steep mountain-wall, forming thus horizontal incisions 
in the same. The shore-lines have also been brought to 
prove that the rising was broken by periods of rest, during 
which the sea had time to hollow out the rock ; but I am 
of opinion ¢hat they could be formed, too, under a gradual 
rising, if the climate be subjected to periodical changes. 
The shorelines belong to the northern parts of the 
country and the deep fjords, where the winter cold is 
more severe, and they are only found in districts where 
there is a tide. They seem to have been blasted out by 
the influence of the cold. At high tide the sea-water fills 
the holes and fissures in the rock, and when the tide 
recedes it is leftin the same. In severe winters the water 
will freeze, and thus burst the rock. During the rising of 
the land, shore-lines will be broken out in this manner, as 
long as the erosion is able to keep pace with the rising. 
When the climate becomes milder, a time will come when 
the erosion is unable to continue. Then the shore-lines 
will be lifted up above the level of the sea, and out of 
the reach of the biasting influence of the water. If next, 
after thousands of years, when the land has perhaps risen 
fifty or a hundred feet, a period follows with a severer 
climate, a new shore-line is formed below the former. 
The shell-banks, too (z.e. deposits of shells of marine 
animals living in shallow water near the shore) lie, as 
Kjerulf has shown, in the Christiania fjord at different 
levels, the oldest at heights of from 540 to 350 feet, and the 
youngest between 200 and 50 feet above the present level 
of the sea. But between 350 and 200 feet none has been 
found. In the neighbouring Swedish province of Bohus 
they are found at all elevations, even between 350 and 
200 feet, and it must therefore be assumed that local 
causes, as, for instance, the ice formation in the more 
closed Christiania fjord, destroyed the shell-banks when 
they reached the shore-line, at a period when the land lay 
350 to 200 feet lower in relation to the sea than at present. 
According to the evidence of the peat-bogs, there is reason 
to believe that this part of the rising occurred under a 
more severe climate. 
It is therefore seen that all the facts which have been 
advanced in order to prove that the rising was broken by 
periods of rest may be easily explained, z/ we assume 
that the land rose gradually and steadily under periods 
alternating with milder and severer climates. 
The University, Christiania A. BLYTT 
(To be continued.) 
AHVPERDPRICHOSES, 
THINK all naturalists, and anthropologists in par- 
ticular, will be interested in the cases of human 
hypertrichosis now on view at the Egyptian Hall, Picca- © 
dilly. I myself spent two hours with them on Saturday 
last. 
This family of hairy people have been at the Court of 
Burmah for four generations. Crawfurd saw Mahphoon, 
the old woman now exhibited, an infant in 1827 ; the 
family was described by Col, Yule in his narrative of a 
Mission to the Court of Ava in 1855. 
It is singular that the hypertrichosis of Mahphoon’s 
grandparent should be continued not only to herself but 
to her son, Moung Phoset, also exhibited, inasmuch as 
one of the parents has always been an ordinary com- 
paratively hairless Burman, so far as the face and body 
are concerned. 
Mahphoon is now an old blind woman, but very lively, 
full of fun, and an inveterate chewer of betel; her face 
