92 SCANDINAVIA. 



tlie western portion of Malar itself being tlius almost completely cut off from 

 the main basin by one of these singular formations remarkable for its extreme 

 regularity. 



Upheaval of the Land. 



The dev^elopment of the âsar and the marine alluvia deposited on the present 

 upheaved lands are evidences of the movements that have passed over the 

 Scandinavian area since the glacial epoch. At first the laud subsided, and the sea- 

 level rose from 500 to 700, in some places even 1,000 feet, as shown by the 

 marine deposits with the remains of arctic animals resting on rocks scored by the 

 action of ice. Then a reverse movement set in, and the land was upheaved, bearing 

 upwards the âsar previously deposited by the running waters. During these 

 vicissitudes of level the Scandinavian relief must have been changed, for the 

 outlines of the upheaved islands and peninsulas do not always correspond with those 

 of the lands engulfed in the deep. Thus a A^ast Silurian region, at the beginning of 

 the glacial epoch stretching along the Swedish seaboard immediately north and 

 north-west of the Aland archipelago, did not again emerge with the reappearance 

 of the plains on the Baltic coast. The former existence of this Silurian land is 

 recalled by the numerous calcareous and sandstone boulders transported by the 

 glaciers or floating ice as far south as the neighbourhood of Stockholm. It is also 

 shown especially by the rich soil of limestone origin covering all the coast districts 

 between Gefle, Wester as, and Stockholm. This fertile soil is the outcome of the 

 constant erosive action of floating ice on the layers of limestone, clays, and schists 

 formerly occupying the present water area east of Gefle. ^ 



These shiftings of level were formerly supposed to have been caused by sudden 

 terrestrial cataclysms coincident with sudden revolutions of the whole planetary 

 system ; but this view has at last given place to the theory of slow change. The 

 natives of the Bothnian seaboard had long been aware of the gradual increase of 

 the coast-line, encroaching continually on the sea. The old men pointed out the 

 various places washed by the waves in their childhood ; and farther inland the 

 names and position of long- forsaken havens ; buildings at one time standing on the 

 seashore ; the remains of vessels found far from the coast ; lastly, written records and 

 snatches of popular song, could leave no doubt regarding the retreat of the marine 

 waters. The first Luleâ, founded by Gustavus Adolphus, seemed to have retired 

 several miles westwards in a century and a half, thus becoming a rural town, and 

 necessitating the building of a new seaport farther east. Yet when, in 1730, 

 Celsius ventured to suggest the hy^Dothesis, not of an upheaval of the land, but of 

 a slow subsidence of the Baltic, he was charged with impiety by the Stockholm 

 theologians, and even in Parliament the two orders of the clergy condemned his 

 abominable heresy. Nevertheless a mark scored in 1731 by Celsius and Linnaeus 

 at the base of a rock in the island of Lofgrund, near Gefle, indicated in thirteen 

 years a difference of level estimated at 7 inches. 



Although it would be impossible altogether to reject the hypothesis of Celsius 

 regarding the subsidence of the waters, still it seems evident that it is the land 



