Sir H. H. Howorth — The Baltic — The Ancylus Sea. 345 



Mecklenburg were once united by a land-bridge, and it was over this 

 that the animals whose remains are now found in the bogs of Scania 

 crossed over (Comptes Eendus Prehistoric Congress at Copenhagen, 

 1875, pp. 53-61).! 



In addition to other evidence of the land-bridge such as is here 

 quoted Erdmann refers to the fact that in the whole of the South 

 of Sweden from the southern coast of Scania, as far as Halland and 

 Smaland, the country is entirely covered with angular debris and 

 contains neither rolled pebbles nor clays except on the eastern and 

 western coast, whence he argues that it was never under water, 

 and he continues : — " Une forte part du continent scanien etait, 

 selon toute probabilite, reunie alors avec les iles danoises et les 

 plaines actuelles de I'Allemagne du nord, et il existait de la sorte 

 un pont naturel sur lequel pouvaient immigrer, du grand continent 

 europeen, les especes animales dont nous trouvons de temps a autre 

 les squelettes dans cette province de I'extreme sud de notre pays. 

 La decouverte faite par Nilsson des restes de ces animaux dans le 

 sol scanien, faisait deja presumer, il y a long temps, a ce savant 

 celebre, la presence, dans les temps recules, d'un pont naturel entre 

 la Suede meridionale et le continent. Mais, autant que je sache, 

 le fait meme que, dans cette partie de la Scanie, les depots glaciaires 

 consistent presque exclusivement de glacier anguleux et qu'ils sont 

 par consequent d'une formation continentale decidee, n'a jamais ete 

 remarque jusqu'ici, et encore moins la conclusion que Ton en pent 

 tirer" (Erdmann, "Expose des formations Quaternairesde la Suede," 

 pp. 73, 74). 



There is abundant direct evidence, therefore, of the former 

 existence of a land-bridge between Skane and the mainland of 

 Denmark and Mecklenburg, the breaking through of which con- 

 verted the fresh-water Ay.cylus sea into the salt-water Litorina sea. 

 The next question is when did this breach occur. The Swedish 

 geologists and antiquaries are of one mind that it took place after 

 man had begun to inhabit Sweden and during the so-called Stone 

 age. Of this there is a good deal of interesting evidence. 



First let us consider the case of the so-called Jara wall. This 

 great rampart, which runs along the sea-coast in the south of Scania 

 from Ystad to a league beyond Trelleborg is essentially an as, and is 

 composed, like the asar of Central Sweden with which it has been 

 compared, of sand and rolled gravel. There can be small doubt 

 from the facts mentioned below that (as the Swedish geologists 

 agree) it belongs to the time of the Litorina sea and was a product 

 of the Litorina age. 



Nilsson speaks of a peat bog under the Jara wall having a thick- 

 ness of 10 feet ; 2 ft. 3 ins. of which lies above and 7 ft. 7 ins. below 



1 This may be the same submerged forest mentioned by Forchhammer, who says it 

 is situated between the island of Romoe and the dukedom of Slesvig, and that it is 

 nine feet below high-water mark, and that its roots are still seen branching out into 

 the sand. The fishermen say this forest consisted of fir. At other places far beyond 

 the present shore forests of oak are found in the same situation below the mean level 

 of the sea (Geol. Trans., ser. ii, vi, 157-160). 



