Oscillations of Land in Scandinavia. 213 



From this iu tiiru it followed tliat the Gulf Stream was completely 

 shut off from the Arctic Ocean and forced to turn south and west 

 of the British Isles, and thus to concentrate its heat-giving energy on 

 central Europe. This explains the mild climate found in a portion 

 of Europe daring a stage of Pre-Glacial time. 



As shown above, it may be considered as a fact confirmed by 

 known phenomena, that at the beginning of the Quaternary Period 

 portions of the North American continent lay at least 1,000 metres, 

 and Scandinavia still more, perhaps 2,000 metres, higher than now. 

 As for the intervening Greenland, it seems probable that it could 

 not be unaffected by these changes of level, but that it took part 

 in them.* 



We meet here the legitimate question : What is it that produced 

 such a great elevation in these particular parts of our earth ? The 

 answer is that North America, Greenland, and Scandinavia, not 

 merely taken together, but each separately, are the largest areas 

 of Archaean rocks in the world.- The remarkable coincidence of 

 the great glaciated districts with the Archaean districts has long 

 since been commented on as peculiar. No explanation, however, 

 has been given of this fact. What it really means I shall here show. 



During the Silurian Period Scandinavia was partly covered by 

 the sea, as clearly proved by the numerous patches of Silurian rock. 

 Possibly the same was the case during a part of the Devonian 

 Period. But before the close of that period Scandinavia rose above 

 the water, and probably went on rising right up to the Quaternary 

 Period. At all events the Archaean area of Scandinavia never again 

 sank beneath the sea, as clearly demonstrated by the absence of 

 younger marine formations from within its boundaries. Examination 

 of a geological map of Europe shows that the shore of the later 

 Palgeozoic, and still more that of the Mesozoic, sea moved eastwards 

 further and further away from Scandinavia, which seems to imply 

 that, during the long ages that elapsed after the Silurian (or Devonian) 

 Period, Scandinavia continually rose, and involved in its rise a part 

 of the surrounding area. 



The course of events on the North American continent was 

 precisely the same. Here the shore of the later Palasozoic and 

 Mesozoic sea moved southwards ever further and further from the 

 rising Archaean area of the north. 



On what can this harmony of events have depended ? 



If so late as the Quaternary Period the crust of the earth was 

 found to yield to the pressure of the land-ice, still more must it 

 have yielded to burdens during the earlier stages of the earth's 

 development. That this was actually the case is shown in Scandinavia 

 itself by numerous instances from Cambro-Silurian times. For 

 some years it has been well known that faults, often accompanied 



' During my jomney to Greenland iu 1880 I saw from the sea snutli ol Ivigtut 

 supposed beaches in a situation exposed to the sea at a jri'eat height on the mountain 

 slopes. Time, however, did not permit me to examine them. Numerous similar 

 observations are mentioned in "• Meddelclser om Griinland." 



2 See Berg-haus' " Physikalischer Atlas," Maps 7/8, 9, and 13 ; Gotha, 1892. 



