Ch. XXXI.] 



EISE OF LxiXD IN SWEDEN. 



181 





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but wliicli were in his time above water — that the waters of 

 the Gnlf of Bothnia had been gradually converted into land^ 

 several ancient ports having been changed into inland cities^ 

 small islands joined to the continent, and old fishing grounds 

 deserted as being too shallow, or entirely dried up. Celsius 

 also maintained, that the evidence of the change rested not 

 only on modern observations, but on the authority of the 

 ancient geographers, who had stated that Scandinavia was 

 formerly an island. This island, he argued, must in the 

 course of centuries, by the gradual retreat of the sea, have 



become 



an event which he 



supposed to have happened after the time of Pliny, and 

 before the ninth century of our era. 



ument 



most 



Europe, that their authority was entitled to no weight ; and 

 that their representation of Scandinavia as an island, might 



mor 



their information, than to confirm so bold an hypothesis. It 

 was also remarked, that if the land which connected Scandi- 

 navia with the main continent was laid dry between the time 

 of Pliny and the 9th century, to the extent to which it is 

 known to have risen above the sea at the latter neriod. the 



uniform 



much 



the 9th and 18th centuries. 



Many of the proofs relied on by Celsius and his foUovfers 

 were immediately controverted by several philosophers, who 

 saw clearly that a fall of the sea in any one region could not 

 take place without a general sinking of the waters over the 

 whole globe ; they denied that this was the fact, or that the 

 depression was universal, even in the Baltic. In proof of the 

 stability of the level of that sea, they appealed to the position 



I 



of the island of Saltholm, not far from Copenhagen. This 

 island is so low, that in autumn and winter it is perma- 

 nently overflowed ; and it is only dry in summer, when it 

 serves for pasturing cattle. It appears, from the documents 

 of the year 1280, that Saltholm was then also in the same 

 state, and exactly on a level with the mean height of the sea. 



