302 K. Pettersen — The Rise and Fall of Continents. 



In a discussion in 187S, " On the Sea Levels Engraved in Rocks" 

 the author has treated of some of these lines in the neighbourhood 

 of Tromsoe. He proves that upon their course from the outward 

 coast into the fjords — which has been pursued step by step for many- 

 miles — they maintain at all points an unaltered height above the sea. 

 If these lines had been bending upwards like those in Alten, as 

 said by Bravais, and at the same measure as those, such a rise could 

 hardly have remained unnoticed. 



As the elevation of the shore-lines about Alten, according to what 

 has been stated, have been found to coincide with those about 

 Tromsoe, there will be, even beforehand, no weighty argument in 

 favour of the supposition, that any difference should exist between 

 the Tromsoe and Alten lines, as held by Mr. Bravais. On the other 

 hand, there is some reason to believe that this writer has joined 

 fragments of different sea-levels and terraces together as parts of 

 one line. 



Thus the treatise of Mr. Bravais cannot be considered as part of a 

 scientific deduction, or as a proof of an unchangeable state of the 

 sea, while, on the other hand, the rise of the ground all over the 

 Scandinavian peninsula seems to find its best explanation by 

 supposing a changeable state of the level of the ocean. 



We have remarked already, that the rise of the land over wide 

 adherent tracts of Scandinavia throughout the Quaternary age has, 

 at least through long periods of it, taken place at a slow and 

 exceedingly uniform pace. There is no proof whatever that this 

 rise has been at any part of that age effected suddenly, or by 

 shocks. The rise of Scandinavia, therefore, cannot be simply 

 regarded as synonymous with that of the west coast of South 

 America. 



The forces that may have caused the successive secular changes 

 in the sea-level of Scandinavia are purely hypothetical. In fact, as 

 yet no attempt has been made to account for their real nature. It is 

 quite natural that local sinkings or risings should take place, as these 

 may be accounted for by well-known forces. But the rise of all 

 Scandinavia is quite another case. As before mentioned, these 

 changes must have gone on quite uniformly in the tracts from 

 Yaranger to Bergen. This is a matter concerning a coast of nearly 

 2,000 English miles ; and, moreover, the whole Scandinavian penin- 

 sula is believed to be rising, and there seem to be beforehand 

 weighty reasons to believe that the scale of this rise has been very 

 uniform all over the peninsula, with the only modification, that the 

 coefficient of elevation has declined a trifle, though regularly from 

 north to south. 



The East of Finmark and Varanger (that is, the North-east part 

 of Norway) are connected, as to their system of mountains, rather 

 nearer to the tracts of land about the Gulf of Bothnia, than to the 

 West of Norway ; consequently, it may be supposed that the 

 changes in the level of the sea about Varanger correspond with 

 those about the Baltic. The observations hitherto made into this 

 respect seem to support such a conjecture. But even if we. look 



