K. Pettersen — The Rise and Fall of Continents. 303 



only at the coast regions from Varanger to Bergen, these by 

 themselves already form such extensive groups of land, that it will 

 be difficult to imagine the nature of the force that should be 

 able, not only to raise the land, but even to make it so slow and 

 uniform as we have seen — not unlike the rise of the piston in a 

 steam-cylinder. Those powers that have raised such mountains 

 as the Alps, the Himalayas, or the Andes, have worked, it is evident, 

 with a violence quite different. Deep and extensive old strata have 

 thereby been broken, upset, or folded up. The rise of the Norwegian 

 coast through the Quaternary period exhibits little or nothing of this 

 kind. Layers of shells with alternately intersected strips of coarser 

 or finer material lie there, quite unaltered, in their original position, 

 although they had been lifted up from 10 to 12 metres above the 

 present waters. Shore-lines, at different heights — rising to hun- 

 dreds of feet above the sea — extend through thousands of miles in 

 an entirely horizontal course. All this seems to indicate that the 

 forces which are pushing Scandinavia upwards are of an entirely 

 different nature from those that have in their time lifted, for instance, 

 the Alps. 



Were there any possibility of accepting the theory of a change in the 

 level of the sea, the many different circumstances that appear relative to 

 the rise of Scandinavia would find a plain and natural explanation. 

 By any other supposition, that may be held by science at present, 

 the matter will remain unaccountable and obscure. 



The question as to the probability of a change in the axis of our 

 planet during the geological periods, which has been much discussed 

 of late years, seems to have met with a decided negation, as well by 

 natural philosophers as by geologists. If, notwithstanding, the 

 centre of gravity of the earth should have been subject to a change, 

 that displacement must have taken place along its axis, in such a 

 manner, that the latter always retained an unchangeable position. 



Whether the cause hereof ought to be explained by the theory of 

 Adhemar and Croll, or is due to other circumstances, it will be neces- 

 sary, before such a theory can be held, to remove the contradictions 

 that seem to exist in the above-mentioned unequal changes in the 

 sea-level within the same hemisphere. 



In this respect it must be remembered at first, that the material 

 hitherto collected concerning the question of changes in the level of 

 the sea through the Quaternary period and the modern age is 

 by far too insufficient to draw, from a broad point of view, any 

 certain scientific deductions. As to the Scandinavian peninsula, it 

 has been held a fact long ago, as is well known, that the north part 

 of it was rising while the south has sunk. But, if I recollect right, 

 it seems to result, according to the researches of late years, that the 

 southern part of Sweden, instead of sinking, is on the contrary 

 about to rise, although, perhaps, not in the same degree as the northern 

 part. Thus there might be at least some possibility that the sup- 

 position of a sinking of the West coast of Greenland should prove, by 

 some more careful researches, just as untenable. But even supposing 

 this not to be the case, the question would not be settled yet. Even 



