198 Sir H. H. Hoioorth — Surface Geology of N. Europe. 



caiieler, creuser, rayer des roches de maniere a leur faire prendre la 

 pbj'sionomie de ceux qui s'offrent aiijourd'hui un peu au dessus de 

 son niveau sur toutes les cotes de la Scandinavie." Elsewhere he 

 concludes that the sea once occupied a large part of Eussia, and that 

 Scandinavia then formed an archipelago. I have myself zigzagged 

 across Sweden in various directions on my recent third visit to that 

 country, and been continually impressed by the same conclusion. 



The most powerful and important evidence has yet to be quoted, 

 however, and it is forthcoming from what every intelligent person, 

 who has traversed Sweden with the view of studying its recent 

 geology, must consider to be in their way the most interesting and 

 stupendous phenomena probably in the world : I mean the Swedish 

 asar or osar. I am writing this paper in the very midst of them, 

 and have had some special opportunities of examining them. The 

 latest writer on Swedish geology, and one of the ablest, Nathorst, in 

 his " Sveriges Geologi," published in 1894, after examining the 

 various theories which have been forthcoming to explain them, has 

 to confess that the problem is still unsolved. To use his own words, 

 "vilja vi dock pa samma gang uttryckligen betona, att vi annu icke 

 betrakta fragan sasom slutligen afgjord " (op. cit., p. 243) — '• we must 

 expressly state that we cannot consider (or look upon) the question 

 as finally settled." 



The asar are such a notable feature in the landscape of Sweden 

 that it is not surprising they should have been observed and their 

 peculiarities described at an early period. Their main features 

 w^ere, in fact, pointed out by Swedenborg at the beginning of the 

 last century, and have been enlarged upon by every succeeding 

 explorer. The Swedish geologists divide the asar into two classes — 

 the asar properly so called, built up of masses of rolled stones, and 

 the sand-asar, composed chiefly of sand. While it is easy to find 

 specimens of each of these, it is also very easy to find others where 

 masses of rolled stones and beds of sand or of tough clay or brick- 

 earth pass into each other very much as they do in the Cromer cliifs. 

 A good example is the fine as upon which Upsala is built, and in 

 vrhjch we can study the internal structure admirably, since it has 

 been recently excavated right through (vide PI. VII). There we can 

 see in the course of a few yards the passage from a mass of rounded 

 boulders into sand. The sand in some places is almost continuous, 

 and in others has banks of clay intercalated in it. The contour of 

 the asar, as Swedenborg long ago pointed out, differs with the 

 nature of their contents, the stony asar having steep sides, while 

 the sandy ones have much rounder outlines. The stones which 

 form such a great part of the asar (except certain specimens 

 occurring in their upper parts) are invariably rounded and water- 

 worn, and would be well described by the phrase applied to some 

 of the East Anglian gravels, viz. "cannon-shot gravel." The asar 

 are found in all parts of Sweden from Scania to Norland, and in 

 Einland and Northern Eussia they form, as is well known, huge 

 banks and ramparts. In some cases they run with great uniformity 

 in shape and breadth for long distances, their direction being 



