Sir S. H. Hoivorth — Geological Hidory of the Baltic. 555 



found not more than 1-1-5 metres above the present sea-level, 

 a proof that the elevation of the Isle of Gotland was all but finished 

 at the end of the Stone Age (Bull. Geol. Inst. Upsala, vi, 280). 

 This seems to me to present very important evidence that the 

 upheaval of that island, like that of the mainland, was in the main, 

 at least, before the Stone Age. 



The same testimony is borne by the island of Biorko in the Malar 

 Sea, which contains a vast cemetery and other remains of the pagan 

 Viking time, and can only have changed its level very slightly 

 since the tenth century, which may be put therefore by the side 

 of similar instances in the Cattegat. Standing in the midst of 

 the fiord is the small island of Anholt. On the littoral beds, just 

 above the water-line, are found remains of the Stone men, showing 

 that the level of the island has not perceptibly changed since they 

 were living. Again, historical documents show that the island of 

 Saltholm, which is only slightly raised above the sea-level, has 

 remained practically at the same level since the year 1280. 



This kind of evidence, which is widespread, and might be much 

 enlarged (and notably by the records of the various maritime towns 

 in the Baltic lands, showing how stationary they have been for 

 a long time), is very important when put beside the unmistakable 

 evidence of the raised shell-beds, in regard to the level of these lands 

 having been greatly raised in Middle and Northern Sweden since tte 

 invasion of the Litorina fauna ; and it goes to show that the views of 

 Von Buch and others in favour of uniformity in regard to this 

 problem are not sustainable, but, on the contrary, that this undoubted 

 movement of upheaval was lai-gely limited to the times preceding 

 or contemporary with the Stone Age, or at least to primitive times. 



This invites the further question as to whether it was a gradual 

 upheaval or, as I firmly believe, a spasmodic and intermittent one. 

 The latter conclusion seems to follow from the fact that the shells 

 do not occur in regularly sloping and continuous beaches, as we 

 should expect in the case of an uprising coast of a sea where there is 

 virtually no tide, but, as at Sodertelje, at various heights in the strata 

 separated by barren intervals (Lyell, op. cit., p. 10). The fact of 

 the shells occurring in detached beds, and not being regularly dis- 

 tributed throughout the whole depth down to the sea-level, seems 

 clear evidence that their deposition was intermittent and not gradual. 



Another fact difficult to account for on any other theory is, that 

 the shells in the shell-beds, instead of gradually increasing in size 

 and gradually losing their distorted forms as we get higher in the 

 beds, until we reach a layer where they are of the normal size 

 and appearance of those in the outer sea, are described as all 

 dwarfish in size, just as they are found in the brackish water of the 

 neighbouring Gulf of Bothnia, and the whole assemblage of shells 

 such as characterizes the Baltic. Eecent writers, although they have 

 noticed a certain dwarfing of the living forms when compared with 

 those in the raised beds, yet declare the latter to be much dwarfed 

 and distorted, and I know of no specimens found in the raised beaches- 

 of a normal size. 



