K. Petto-sen — The Rise and Fall of Continents. 301 



Southern hemisphere. New Zealand, for instance, is believed to be 

 rising, while in this case subsidence might be expected, which is in 

 fact pre-eminently the case over the Southern part of the globe. 

 Added to this, the many observations relating to the rise of Scandinavia 

 must — supposing those observations to be right — absolutely prove 

 that rise to depend on an upheaval of the mountains. 



The very frequent and distinct sea-levels or ancient sea-margins, 

 which run parallel to the present coast of the North of Norway, 

 should — it seems — be so many more proofs hereof. 



Bravais was the first who studied those lines about the Altenfjord. 

 According to his observations, which were afterwards — partly at 

 least — confirmed by Mr. E. Chambers in his "Ancient Sea Margins," 

 two sea-levels are said to extend along the recent coast-line at 

 different elevations above the sea. These lines may be traced, it is 

 said, although interrupted by shorter or longer interstices, from the 

 bottom of Altenfjord towards Hammerfest for a length of about 60 

 English miles. According to Bravais these two lines are not parallel, 

 either to the present line of coast, or to each other. He found the 

 furrows bending slowly down after their course from the fjord to the 

 outward coast, while at the same time they converge in their relation 

 to each other. 



However, the inquiries that have been made into this matter of 

 late years do not tend to confirm the correctness of those observa- 

 tions. The recent researches have not been, it is true, so extensive 

 as necessary to be able to come to any absolute conclusion. Still, 

 there has been noted so much already tending to prove that the 

 opinions of Mr. Bravais are founded on erroneous suppositions, and 

 that his conclusions must be kept, at least for the present, apart from 

 the range of positive facts. 



But with it falls one of the weightiest arguments for the doctrine 

 of an unchangeable state of the level of the ocean, which has been 

 until now acknowledged, and which theory relies mostly, as we have 

 said, on circumstances along the North of Norway, pointed out by 

 Bravais. 



We shall try to give, in the following lines, an account of the 

 result of the researches of late years in this matter. 



Mr. H. Mohn, in a treatise published 1877, 1 has collected rich 

 materials towards the explanation of the appearance of ancient sea- 

 levels along the coast of Norway, from Bergen northwards to the 

 Varangerfjord. According to his measurements there is a remark- 

 able recurrence in the levels of those lines within large tracts of the 

 North of Norway (in West Finmark and in the district of Tromsoe). 

 But even about Bergen two of the lower lines correspond in their 

 respective elevations with two similar lines about Tromsoe. It 

 seems quite evident, therefore, that the rise of the whole coast from 

 the very North of Norway to Bergen must have been quite uniform, 

 at least throughout long periods of the Quaternary age. 



1 Bidrag til Kundskab om Gamle Strandlinier i Norge. Nyt Mag. for Naturv, 

 1877. (Contribution to the Knowledge of Ancient Sea Margins in Norway. New 

 Mag. of Science, 1877.) 



