Sir H. H. Howorth — Geological History of the Baltic. 407 



"Wener has a mean elevation of 144 feet, while its extreme depth is 

 290 feet ; Wettern is twice the altitude of "Wener and is also deeper, 

 measuring 417 feet in depth and being 126 feet below that of the 

 adjoining sea. The Mjcisen Lake, which is 197 square miles in 

 extent, has an extreme depth of 1,480 feet with an altitude of 397. 



The curious fish and crustaceans contained in these lakes have 

 been accepted as relics of former conditions when they formed part 

 of the gulf already mentioned and when it was occupied by salt 

 water, and they have since adapted themselves to freshwater con- 

 ditions. The Norwegian lake of Mjosen, although it is so far distant 

 from Lakes Wener and Wettern, also contains one of these relics in 

 the form of Mysis relicta. 



The evidence therefore abounds that in that part of Sweden 

 where the upheaval has been the greatest there are the most potent 

 proofs that it culminated in great changes of the earth's crust on 

 a mighty scale at a very recent period. This must, it is clear, be 

 taken into account as a postulate when we are analysing the later 

 geological history of the country. It seems to me also that sub- 

 sidiary evidence of these fractures and breaks is to be found in the 

 utterly smashed condition of the Silurian beds in the upper parts of 

 the Baltic region, the broken and angular debris of which have been so 

 widely scattered, and also the existence of so many beds of quite sharp- 

 edged unaltered stones, the equivalents of the angular drift of the 

 English southern coast lands, which it would seem impossible to 

 account for except as the result of enormous impacts caused by 

 spasmodic movements. 



Let us now proceed further north. "We have reached the frontier 

 separating Sweden and Norway. The political frontier -position 

 corresponds to no definite physical one. There is complete 

 continuity in the geology across the political " divide " so far as it 

 relates to the latest period. The raised beaches are clearly con- 

 temporary in the coast-lands of Bohuslan and Central Sweden and 

 those of the great inland bight or gulf formed by the Skagerack on 

 the west and the Cattegat on the east, with the projecting pocket 

 known as the Christiania Pjord. In both cases we have two 

 definitely separated sets of raised beaches, one containing only a 

 highly Arctic fauna and existing for the most part at a low level and 

 the other characterized by the same fauna as still lives in the bight 

 and for the most part at high levels. The details of the phenomena 

 have been set out in an excellent and portly volume by Dr. Brogger 

 on The Raised Beaches of the Christiania Fjord, to which I am greatly 

 indebted. 



Before dealing with these details, however, I propose to say a few 

 words in regard to the more general question in which Norway as 

 a whole has the same story to tell as Sweden. 



The first point in which they agree is that both contain the 

 strongest evidence that the land has been quiescent for many 

 centuries. In a notable paper by Hansen, the latest authority on 

 the subject in Norwaj^ he first calls attention to the divergent 

 opinions of older inquirers in both countries on the matter, and points 

 out the uncertainty in obtaining fixed elements to enable the problem 



