406 Sir H. H. Howorth — Geological History of the Baltic. 



rocks, and as fresh under their covering of shells as if recently dead, 

 and showing no signs of weathering, absolutely proves to me that 

 they were not exposed to the weather during a gentle or long- 

 enduring elevation, but were lifted up suddenly by one impulse 

 with the rocks to which they are attached and at once covered by 

 the protecting shell beds to the height of 200 feet above sea-level 

 or more. They attest most completely the cataclysm which 

 must have occurred when the great Swedish anticlinal was lifted 

 bodily up. 



Several of the great Scandinavian rivers, says lleclus, have 

 changed their courses. There was a time when the River Foenmund, 

 now draining southward to the Cattegat through the River Klar, 

 drained through the Dalelf south-east to the Gulf of Bothnia. The 

 old bed of the river is still visible four or five feet above the present 

 lake. The Gotha was recompensed by receiving from another source 

 all the waters of the Glommen, so that its volume was more than 

 doubled. 



The extent of country, too, where the shells have been found at 

 high levels in Central Sweden is very great; they have been found in 

 Jemteland, West Gothland, and Dalsland, while on the heights 

 commanding the Lakes Wener, Wettern, and Mjosen, and the Malar 

 Sea great beds of oysters occur, showing how much of the high land 

 there has been submerged. These great lakes have clearly been 

 lately united and formed a great gulf which was in fact an extension 

 of the Cattegat. This was clearly seen and stated long ago by Lyell. 



In his Bakerian Lecture, printed in the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1835, Lyell said it is evident from the position of the fossil 

 shells of several species on the coast of the Baltic between Gefle and 

 Sodertelje, and on the shores of the ocean between Uddevalla and 

 Gothenburg, that the tfact of land which once separated the two 

 seas in this region was much narrower at a comparatively modern 

 period. Shells like those at Uddevalla have not only been found 

 a few miles due east of that place, but as far inland as Trollhatten, 

 in digging the canal there, and still further in the interior, about 

 fifty miles from the coast at Tuscdalershacken and other places. near 

 Rogvarpen in Dalsland on the west side of Lake Wener. Of these 

 matters an account is given by Hisinger (Anteclcningen, iv, 42). 

 They are found in Dalsland as far above the sea as near Uddevalla, 

 or about 200 feet high, so that when deposited we must suppose the 

 whole of Lake Wener, the surface of which lies at an inferior level, to 

 have formed part of the ocean. 



Another evidence of the extent of dislocation will be referred to 

 presently when we discuss the so-called Yoldia sea and the distribu- 

 tion of that much misunderstood and very important shell in the 

 district we are considering, where it has been found at great heights 

 and yet must have lived at very great depths. 



The contours and great depths of the Swedish lakes and their 

 abnormal living contents also go to show that quite recently 

 geologically they have been united and that tliey have been subject 

 to disruptive movements. Although their surface is above the level 

 of the sea the beds of most of them are much below that of the Baltic 



