136 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



sought for as far as 100 kilometers to the east and south of the 

 watershed. This southern position was moreover accentuated by 

 meteorological facts. The western moist winds are intercepted 

 by the broad western alpine foreland and the high land near the 

 watershed, while the low country at the southeast would give the 

 moist winds free access to the southern glacier side. The country 

 close to the watershed on the southeast now gets almost all its 

 humidity from the southeast winds, but these would, in early post- 

 glacial time, be barred by the inland ice, which in this way would 

 come to have a very dry north side, in contrast to a very moist 

 south side. This would draw the last inland ice out lo the south- 

 east edge of the mountain plateau to a point not far above the 

 great epiglacial lakes in southern Norway. 



But the melting of the inland ice did not go on uninter- 

 ruptedly. When the land had risen more than half the post- 

 glacial uplift, and when, presumably, the ice was more than half 

 gone, a new deterioration of the climate commenced. It is pos- 

 sible it did not get worse than the present, but it was enough to 

 stop the melting of the inland ice, which again arose above the 

 snow line. The ice again assumed the character of a living gla- 

 cier, and kept its position unaltered for a long time. Under the 

 pressure of this constant ice load the land again was kept at a con- 

 stant level. We find, especially in northern Norway, a new strand- 

 linje (sea beach), occurring at about 40 per cent, of the epiglacial 

 and great terraces, built up with a fauna quite like the modern. 

 This new marked phase in postglacial time I have called the sub- 

 glacial period, denoting its half glacial condition. In Sweden this 

 epoch is also marked by a very distinct beach line, but in Scania 

 and Gothland this low raised beach in places is built upon peat, 

 which shows that the uplift of land in the Boreal period did 

 exceed that in the following. For this reason, the Swedish geol- 

 ogists speak of the post-glacial depression. The term post-glacial 

 for this general phase is very unfortunate. It must necessarily 

 literally denote all the time after the deuteroglacial-epiglacial 

 period, for which time we have no other name. And as the 

 constant level in Norway only represents a single phase in the 



