Sir S. H. Howorth — The Baltic — The Ancylus Sea. 343 



Scandinavian fauna. In this he enlarged, inter alia, on the 

 evidences of a general sinking of the land in very recent geological 

 times along the coast of Skane. He mentions the discovery of 

 submarine turf in many places along the coast from Dybeck as far 

 as the district between Trelleborg and Falsterbo. Over 200 feet 

 from the shore is a bed of turf about two feet deep under the sea and 

 six feet thick. A similar bed of peat lies near the fishing village of 

 Skare. Again, three-quarters of a mile from the land and on the 

 ground known as Falsterbo there lies a great mass of peat of several 

 acres in extent and 10 to 12 feet in thickness. It is 24 to 26 feet 

 below sea-level, and contains various kinds of land and fresh-water 

 products ; inter alia, it contains a number of large and small 

 trees, such as oak, birch, alder, aspen, and fir, mixed with leaves in 

 all its various layers, of hazel, willow, sallow, together with 

 hazel-nuts, pine cones, Equisetee, etc., etc. (Geol. Foren. Stockholm 

 Forhandlingar, i, 101). 



Nilsson by careful measurements at Falsterbo has shown that the 

 sea has gained considerably on the land. A small island called 

 Klappen has almost disappeared, while extensive beds of submarine 

 turf formed in fresh water are now found at a depth of from 10 to 

 14 feet below the surface of the sea. These submarine turbaries, he 

 says, occur in many places, some near the present coast and some 

 at a great distance away and at great depths. In enlarging the port 

 of Malmo in 1874 a submarine turbary was found containing 

 flint flakes. 



During the years 1874-5 some excavations were made in the 

 port of Tstad, which were closely watched and reported upon by 

 M. Bruzelins, then living there. The space reported upon by him 

 consisted of three Swedish acres or six French hectares. The 

 surface layer of the deposit was sand, below which, and at a depth 

 of three metres below the mean level of the water, there was 

 a peat bog varying from 40 to 25 centimetres in depth. In this 

 peat were a number of trees still attached by their roots. Below the 

 peat was a layer varying in composition, sometimes sand, sometimes 

 blue clay, and sometimes a mixture of sand and clay, and containing 

 many striated pebbles. 



In the bed of sand above the peat were shells of Mytilus edulis, 

 Mya arenaria, Tellina balthica, and Cardium edule, mingled with the 

 wreckage of 38 ships, one of which, loaded with tiles, dated from 

 the middle ages, and there were found a number of objects of metal 

 — caldrons, etc., two arquebuses, dating probably from 1450 to 1500, 

 and six cannon-balls. There were also found a number of other 

 domestic objects, enumerated by Bruzelins, all probably dating 

 from two to four centuries ago, together with a large number of 

 skulls and bones of oxen and horses, skulls of dogs, swine, 

 sheep, goat, and roebuck, bones of the fox and cat, and one or 

 two human jawbones. All the objects in this layer belonged to the 

 modern world, and none reached back to pagan times or the earlier 

 part of the middle ages. 



In the peat below the sand were many roots of aquatic plants. 



