﻿290 ^rof> Milne — Across Europe and Asia. 



the end of the point having been the chief source of supply. Although 

 Denmark is increasing at the Skagen, the losses which it and the 

 neighbouring islands suffer from the flood of water ever pouring 

 between the German Ocean and the Baltic are by no means com- 

 pensated for. The waste of Denmark is with geologists as fruitful 

 a theme and text as that of Eastern England. 



The same evening on which I saw the Skagen I reached Gotten- 

 borg. This place is interesting as giving evidence of a slow eleva- 

 tion of the land above the sea-level, without the intervention of any 

 violent agency. Early next morning I had a short ramble across 

 the gneissic hills, which overlook the town. These are smooth and 

 rounded, and have that hummocky character usually attributed to 

 glacial action. Between these, filling up the valleys, were long, flat 

 grassy meads banded with shining strips of water. I did not notice 

 any boulders or drift. 



In a small museum in the town I saw a collection of geological 

 specimens, and also a fine series of Scandinavian and other animals. 

 Amongst these latter there was a Swedish Elk which, to me, had a 

 much thinner, taller, and altogether gaunter appearance than the 

 American Moose, with which, by some, it is thought to be identical. 



Whilst walking about the town I was much struck with the 

 sections of fossils in the flags which pave the sidewalks. They 

 were nearly all of the genus Orthoceras, many being large and 

 beautifully defined. In places these cylindrical bodies were so 

 thickly packed that the sea-bottom on which they were deposited 

 must have been like a floor strewn with spikes. These flagstones 

 come from some of the Silurian islands of the Baltic. 



On the evening of the 8th I left Gottenborg for Stockholm. As 

 the train went slowly, so long as daylight lasted I had excellent 

 opportunities of seeing the country through which we passed. For 

 the first part of the journey we traversed a fertile valley bounded 

 on either side by high hills, which in many places showed bare 

 rock. In some places the line was so overhung bj' trees that they 

 almost swept the tops of the carriages as we passed beneath them, 

 and one might almost fancy oneself in an English lane. Farther 

 up the valley the alluvium, and with it the vegetation, crept some 

 distance from the central trench, up the flanking hills. This con- 

 tinued until we reached Lerum, where the cold-looking rocky 

 summits were all decked with the earthy covering, which at a lower 

 level had only stretched across the valley bed. Next morning, just 

 before we reached Stockholm, I saw several cuttings made in the 

 sides of small hills, showing earthy sections about forty feet in 

 height filled with stones and large boulders. 



The general opinion with regard to the origin of the rounded 

 rocks like those of Gottenborg, and the beds of clay and boulders 

 as seen near Stockholm, is, that they have been produced through 

 the agency of some form of ice. Glaciers being conspicuous and 

 accessible objects for investigation by the writers on these subjects, 

 have received considerable attention. But there is another j^robable 

 and possible agent by which appearances of this sort may have been 



