AGN] Goa Ww DyeSor Rip ie A TS: LXV 
cle the whole globe, and that the laft light of the fetting fun continued fo very vivid 
as to obfcure the ftars themfelves. There is not a fingle circumftance of exag- 
‘geration in all this: every winter the gulph is frozen, and becomes motionlefs. 
Many inftances may be adduced even of the Baltic itfelf being frozen*. The 
ftars are frequently loft in the amazing fplendor and various colors of the aurora 
borealis. The Hillevicnes, an antient people of Sweden, ftyled Scandinavia, al- 
terum orbem terrarum, and their defcendants, long carolled the junction of the 
Bothnian gulph with the northern ocean, traditionally rchearfed-in old Swedi/h 
fongs. Tacitus ufes the two laft words to exprefs the world furrounded by this 
fea. In the days of the geographer Adela, there certainly was a ftrong tide in 
this upper part of the Baltic; for, fpeaking of the iflands off Fizland, he fays, 
“ Quse Sarmatis adverfa funt, ob alternos acceffus recurfufque pelagi, et quod 
<¢ fpatia queis diftant, modo operiuntur undis, modo nuda funt; alias infulze 
“¢ yidentur, alids una et continens terra.” With propriety, therefore, in 
another place, does he compare it to a ftreight, par frets, notwithftanding 
che was ignorant of its other entrance. Doctor Pallas moft juftly afcribes ANTIENT 
the formation of not only the Baltic, but its former communication with STRFICHTS BE- 
the White Sea, to the effects of a deluge. The whole intermediate country is bet oH 
‘a proof; the foundation being what is called the old rock, and that covered 
with variety of matter; fuch as beds of pebble and gravel, and fragments of 
granite, torn from the great mafs. Parts of the channel which formed the THE Battic any 
infulation of Scandinavia, are the chain of lakes, from that of Ladoga to the Oa Ess 
White Sea, {uch as Onega, and others, often connected by rivers, and lying 
in a low country, filled with the proofs above-mentioned. ‘This was the ftreight 
through which the tide poured itfelf from the Hyperborean ocean, and covered, at 
its flux, the iflands defcribed by Adela. This, like the other northern feas, 
swas annually frozen over, and could be no obftacle to the ftocking of Scandinavia 
with quadrupeds. There is no fixing the period in which this paflage was ob- 
ftructed. An influx of fand, or an earthquake, might clofe it up. As foon as 
this event took place, the Baltic felt the want of its ufual feed: it loft the pro- 
sperty of a fea; and, by a conftant exhalation, from that time decreafed in the 
‘quantity of water. Modern philofophers have proved the great lofs it has fuf- 
tained, and that it decreafes from forty to fifty inches in a century: that, near 
Pithea, the gulph of Bothnia has retired from the land half a mile in forty-five 
years ; and near Lulea, a mile in twenty-eight. Notwithftanding its prefent 
ftate, when we confider the accounts given by the antients, the old Swedi/h tra- 
-ditions, and the prefent veftiges of the former channel, we can, without any 
* Forfler’s Obf. 80. 
i force 
