AND OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 



71 



GEOLOGY. 

 On the Proofs of a gradual Rising of the Land in certain parts of 

 Sweden.- — It has been long imagined that the waters of the Baltic, and even the 

 whole Northern Ocean, have been gradually sinking. In 1834, Mr Lyell investi- 

 gated this interesting subject. On his way to Sweden, he examined the eastern 

 shores of the Danish islands of Moon and Seeland, but neither there nor in Scania 

 could he discover any indication of a recent rising of the land ; nor was there any 

 tradition giving support to such a supposition. The first place he visited, where any 

 elevation of land had been suspected, was Calmar, the fortress of which, built in the 

 year 1030, appeared, on examination, to have had its foundations originally below 

 the level of the sea, although they are now situate nearly two feet above the level of 

 the Baltic. Part of the moat on one side of the castle, which is beheved to have 

 been originally filled with water from the sea, is now dry, and the bottom covered 

 with green turf. At Stockholm, the author found many striking geological proofs 

 of a change in the relative level of the sea and land, since the period when the 

 Baltic has been inhabited by the shells which it now contains. A great abundance 

 of shells of the same species were met with in strata of loam, &c. at various heights, 

 from 30 to 90 feet above the level of the Baltic. They consist chiefly of the Edible 

 Cockle {Cardium edule)^ the Tellina Baltica^ and the common shore Nerite {Lit- 

 fOiiiKi littoreits), together with portions of the common Muscle (^Mytilus edule), 

 generally decomposed, but often recognisable by the violet colour which they have 

 imparted to the whole mass. In cutting a canal from Sodcrtelje to Lake Rhielar, 

 several buried vessels were found ; some apparently of great antiquity, from the cir- 

 cumstance of their containing no iron, the planks being fixed together by wooden 

 nails. In another place an anchor was dug up, as also in one spot, some iron nails. 

 The remains of a square wooden house were also discovered at the bottom of an ex- 

 cavation made for the canal, nearly at a level with the sea, but at a depth of sixty- 

 four feet from the surface of the ground. An irregular ring of stones was found on 

 the floor of this hut, having the appearance of a rude fire-place, and within it was a 

 heap of charcoal and charred wood. On the outside of the ring was a heap of unburnt 

 fir wood broken up for fuel ; the dried needles of the fir and the bark of the branches 

 being still preserved. The whole building was enveloped in fine sand. 



The author next notices several circumstances regarding buildings in Stockholm 

 a»d its suburbs, from which he infers that the elevation of the land, during the last 

 three or four centuries, has not exceeded certain narrow Umits. At Upsala he met 

 with the usual indications of a former elevation of the sea, from the presence of shells, 

 which are now common on the shores of the Baltic. Certain plants, as the Glauca 

 maritima and the Triglochin maritimits, which naturally inhabit salt marshes border- 

 ing the sea, flourish in a meadow to the south of Upsala ; a fact that corroborates 

 the supposition that the whole of Lake Jlaelar and the adjoining low lands have, at 

 no very remote period of history, been covered with salt water. 



The author examined minutely certain marks which had at different times been 

 cut artificially in perpendicular rocks washed by the sea in various places, particularly 

 near Oregrund, Gefle, Liifgrund, and Edskosund; all of which concur in showing 

 that the level of the sea, when compared with the land, has very sensibly sunk. A 

 similar conclusion was deduced from the observations made by the author on the op- 

 posite or western side of Sweden, between Uddevalale and Gottenburg, and especially 

 from the indications presented by the islands of Orust, Gulholmen, and Marstrand. 



Throughout the paper, a circumstantial account is given of the geological structure 

 and physical features of those parts of the country which the author visited ; and the 

 general result of the comparison he draws of both the eastern and western coasts and 

 their islands with the interior, is highly favorable to the hypothesis of a general rise 

 of the land, every tract having in its turn been first a shoal in the sea, and then, for 

 a time, a portion of the shore. This opinion is strongly corroborated by the testi- 

 mony of the inhabitants (pilots and fishermen more especially), of the increased 

 extension of the land, and the apparent sinking of the sea. The rate of elevation, 

 however, appears to be very different indifferent places; no trace of such a change is 

 found in the south of Scania. In those places where its amount was ascertained with 

 greatest accuracy, it appears to be about three feet in a century. The phenomenon 

 in question having excited increasing interest among the philosophers of Sweden, and 

 especially in the mind of Professor Brezeltus, it is to be hoped that the means of 

 accurate determination will be greatly multiplied. 



Fossil Shells on the Snowy Mountains of Thibet M. Gerard, while 



making a tour over the snowy mountains of Thibet, picked up some fossil shells on 

 the crest of a pass, elevated 17,000 feet; and here also were fragments of rocks, 

 bearing the impression of shells, which must have been detached from the contitm- 

 ous peaks rising far above the elevated level. Generally, however, the rocks formed 

 of these shells are at an altitude of 16,000 feet; and one cliff was a mile in perpen- 

 dicular height above the nearest level. M. Gerard further states, "Just before 

 crossing the boundary of Ludak into Bussaher, I was exceedingly gratified by the 

 discovery of a bed of fossil oysters, clinging to the rock as if they had been alive." 

 In whatever point of view we consider the subject, it is sublime to think of millions 

 of organic remains lying at such an extraordinary altitude, and of vast chffs of rocks 

 formed out of them, frowning over the illimitable and desolate waters, where the 

 ocean once rolled. 



The Moving Bog of Randalstown "We have already alluded to this rather 



rare phenomenon, which has been lately witnessed on part of Lord O'Neii's estate 

 in the neighbourhood of Randalstown, on the Ballymena road, and about two miles 

 and a half from the former town. On the 17th September 1835, in the evening, 

 the first movement occurred. A person who was near the ground was surprised to 

 heap a rumbhng noise as if under the earth ; and immediately after, his surprise was not 

 a Uttle increased, on perceiving a part of the bog move rapidly forward, a distance of 

 a few perches. It then halted, and exhibited a broken rugged appearance, with a 

 soft peaty substance boiling up through the chinks. It remained in this state till the 

 22d, when it suddenly moved forward, at as quick a rate, covering corn-fields, 

 potatoc-fields, turf-stacks, hay-ricks, &c. ; not a vestige remained to be seen. So 

 sudden and rapid was this movement, that the adjacent mail- coach- road was covered 

 in a few minutes, or rather moments, to a depth of nearly twenty feet. It then 



directed its course towards the river Jlaine, which lay below it ; and so great was 

 its force, and such the quantity of matter carried along, that the moving mass was 

 forced a considerable way across the river. In consequence of heavy rains at the 

 time, the river found its channel through the matter deposited in its bed, other- 

 wise the w^ater would have been forced back, and immense damage done to the land on 

 the banks. The fish in the river were killed to a great distance. The damage 

 done by the mossy inundation was very considerable. About 150 acres of ei- 

 celleot arable land have been covered and rendered totally useless. Down tho middle 

 of this projected matter a channel has been formed through which there is a con- 

 tinual flow of dark peaty substance, over ground which, but a fortnight before, the 

 reapers were at work, A house close by the gi-ound is so far overwhelmed, that 

 only part of the roof is to be seen. 



METEOROLOGY. 



Resiarkable Parhelia — Lieutenant R. E. Clary, while at Fort Howard, 

 Green Bay, Michigan Ter. in the United States, observed a very singular and inter- 

 esting phenomenon, on the morning of the 27th of February 1835. It consisted of 

 a large and briUiant halo around the sun, with two parhelia within tho circumference, 

 at the extremities of its horizontal diameter, but little inferior in brilliancy to the 

 true sun ; they were accompanied by luminous trains op tails opposite to the sun. 

 Immediately above and beneath the sun, in the circumference of the same circle, there 

 were bright luminous spots of an elliptical form, less intense in brilliancy than the 

 first, but of much greater magnitude. From the superior or more elevated spot, 

 rays, faintly coloured, and sUghtly curved downwards, appeared to emanate, forming 

 a, small portion of an arc of a circle, of less curvature than the halo. Another circle, 

 the plane of which was horizontal, at right angles to, and of greater diameter than 

 the first, with its centre apparently in the zenith, completely surrounded the heavens ; 

 its circumference passed through the sun and two mock suns, the latter being dis- 

 tinctly reflected in the opposite part of the heavens. 



About 15*^ from the zenith, in the direction of the sun, there appeared two faintly 

 luminous arcs of circles, nearly tangent to, and convex towards, each other ; they 

 were but a few degrees in extent. 



Two well defined and tolerably briUiant rainbows, situated upon the right and left 

 of the parhelia, with theu" convexity towards it, completed this rare and interesting 

 appearance. 



This phenomenon was first observed a little before 8 o'clock, the lower part of the 

 halo being then about 2° above the horizon, its diameter descending as the altitude 

 of the Bun increased ; arrived at its greatest degree of brilliancy and splendour 15 

 minutes before 10, when it began to decrease, and finally disappeared about 15 mi- 

 nutes before 11 o'clock, the duration of the phenomenon being about three hours. 



The morning was extremely cold, the mercury standing at 16*^ below zero, and the 

 atmosphere was uncommonly clear and serene. In tho afternoon it became cloudy, 

 and indicated snow. 



The same phenomenon, with some modifications in its appearance, was observed at 

 Fort Winnebago, 113 mites south-west from Fort Howard, which is in latitude 

 44° 30'. 



In the above diagram, the position and appearance of the halo is represented ; as also 

 the horizontal circle, rainbow and parhelia, with their reflections, as they appeared 

 15 minutes before 10 o'clock; — greater number of reflections, perhaps, than were 

 ever witnessed at one time before, all depending upon the same peculiar state of the 

 atmosphere for their existence. 



Shower of Falling Stars in Russia. — M. le Comte de Suchteln communi- 

 cated the following interesting fact to I\L Feodorou, which he laid before the " Royal 

 Academy of Sciences" at Paris. *' On the 13th November 1832, between three and 

 four o'clock in the morning, the weather calm and the sky serene, the thermometer 

 indicating 55 degrees of Fahrenheit, the heavens appeared to be bespangled by a 

 great number of meteors, which described an arch in the direction of from north-east 

 to south-west. They burst like rockets into innumerable small stars, without pro- 

 ducing any perceptible noise, and leaving in the sky a long conlinued, luminous belt, 

 exhibiting zl\ the varied colours of the rainbow. The light of the moon, however, 

 then in her last quarter, considerably obscured this appearance. At times the heavens 

 appeared as if cleft asunder, and, in the intervening space, there appeared long bril- 

 liant whitish bands. At other times flashes of lightning rapidly traversed the arch 

 of heaven, eclipsing the light of the stars, and causing these long and luminous bands 



