206 Dr. N. 0. Hoht—The Glacial Period and 



of Blekinge and of the Kalmar district, were exposed by elevation 

 of the land and were weathered before the deposition of Post-Glacial 

 beds upon them had begun. It was this elevation of the land that 

 connected Scania with Denmark and permitted the immigration of 

 the larger land animals.^ It appears as though not only this 

 elevation, but also the succeeding depression, during which the 

 oldest Ancijlus beds were deposited in the government districts of 

 Blekinge and Kalmar, took place in the former district before the 

 Arctic plants had found time to immigrate thither. But when this 

 depression reached the neighbourhood of Kalmar, the Arctic plants 

 were already there. In Blekinge and the Kalmar district there 

 followed an elevation, probably of less importance, and it was not 

 until the succeeding depression, which marks the beginning of the 

 middle Ancylus epoch, that southern Sweden saw the deposition of 

 beds that can be paralleled with the oldest Post-GIacial beds of 

 central Sweden. But these latter lie without break conformably on 

 the Glacial beds. This implies that southern Sweden incurred two 

 elevations and their succeeding depressions, in which central Sweden 

 had no share. No explanation of these facts is more natural than 

 that southern Sweden, relieved of its ice-load, rose ~ and began to 

 ■oscillate, loJiile the land-ice continued to keep central Sweden depressed. 

 In other words, this means that there was a clear and definite con- 

 nection on the one hand between the weight of the land-ice and the 

 depression of the land, on the other hand between the removal of 

 the weight and the elevation of the land. But this is a result 

 pregnant with the most important consequences for the whole of 

 glacial geology. 



It is clear that the depression, if dependent on the weight of the 

 land-ice, should yield evidence of having been greater tlie nearer 

 one comes to the centre of the ice ; in other words, the nearer one 

 comes to those regions where the ice-load was greatest. A glance 

 at a map indicating the extent of the depression shows at once that 

 such was the case.^ While in the south the curve of depression 



1 That the aurochs abeady existed in the province of Kalmar at the beginning of 

 the fir period, i.e. at the beginning of the middle Ancylus epoch, has been proved 

 on a preceding page. But the only Post-Glacial elevation of importance that 

 occurred in southern Sweden before that period was the very one that immediately 

 followed the deposition of the Glacial marine beds. 



- It is quite probable that this elevation during the oldest Post-Glacial Period also 

 reached northern Germany. If such was the case, may it not in part have been the 

 reason why the Vistula and Oder during that period did not flow into the Baltic but 

 had their outlet through the Elbe? Cf. F. WahnschafPe, "Die Ursachen der 

 Oberflachengestaltung des norddeutschen Flachlandes" ; Stuttgart, 1891. 



It is also very probable that the same upward pressure of the land outside the 

 periphery of the land-ice took place in North America, and that this affords the 

 •correct explanation of many phenomena which otherwise appear inexplicable. 



3 See Gerard De Geer, " Om Skandinavieus geografiska utveckling," 2. Kartor, 

 pis. 2, 3, 4 ; Stockholm, 1896. The criticism must, however, be passed on these 

 plates that they do not, as they ])rofess, give the depression-curves for different 

 epochs of the melting of the ice, but that all three show only the same thing, namely, 

 the extent of the depression at the time of the final melting of the ice. According to 

 the plates, the depression during the melting of the ice remained the same for a long 

 period, while, on the contrary, all the facts tend to prove that throughout that time 

 the extent of the depression altered very rapidly. 



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