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Ch. XXXL] 



EISE OF LAND IN SWEDEN. 



183 



ice-islands float away, bearing up these rocky fragments so 

 as to convey tliem to a distance ; and if they are driven by 

 the waves upon shoals^ they may convert them into islands 

 by depositing the blocks ; if stranded upon low islands^ they 

 may considerably augment their height. 



Browallius, also^ and some other Swedish naturalists^ 

 afiirmed that some islands were lower than formerly ; and 

 that, by reference to this kind of evidence, there was equally 

 good reason for contending that the level of the Baltic v^as 

 gradually rising. They also added another curious proof of 

 the permanency of the water level, at some points at least, 

 for many centuries. On the Finland coast were some large 

 pines and oaks, growing close to the water's edge; these 

 were cut down, and, by counting the concentric rings of 

 annual growth, as seen in a transverse section of the trunk 



of them had stood there 

 for nearly 400 years. Now, according to the Celsian hjpo- 

 tliesis, the sea had sunk about 15 feet during that period, in 

 which case the germination and early growth of these trees 

 must have been, for many seasons, below the level of the 

 water. In like manner, it was asserted that the lower walls 



some 



o 



many 



fc) 



must 



according to the theory of Celsius, have been originally con- 

 structed below the level of the sea. 



In reply to this last argument. Colonel Hallstrom, a 

 Swedish engineer, well acquainted with the Finland coast, 

 assured me, that the base of the walls of the castle of Abo is 

 now ten feet above the water, so that there may have been a 

 considerable rise of the land at that point since the building 



was erected. But the argument founded on the position of 



Erdmann 



remarked, unanswerable so far as it relates to a part at least 

 of the Finnish coast. 



Playfair, in his ' Illustrations of the 

 in 1802, admitted the sufficiency of the 



Huttonian 



of the proofs adduced by 

 Uelsius, but attributed the change of level to the movement 

 of the land, rather than to a diminution of the waters. He 

 observed, ' that in order to depress or elevate the absolute 



