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Ch. XXXI.] 



EISE OF LAND IN SWEDEN. 



185 



with respect to tlie elevation or depression of the land.'"^ 

 The hypothesis of the rising of the land, he adds, ' agrees 

 well with the Huttonian theory, which holds that our conti- 

 nents are subject to be acted upon bj the expansive forces 

 of the mineral regions ; that by these forces they have been 

 actually raised up, and are sustained by them in their pre- 

 sent situation.' t 



In the year 1807, Yon Buch, after returning from a tour 



in Scandinavia, announced his conviction, ' that the whole 

 country, from Frederickshall in I^orway to Abo in Finland, 

 and perhaps as far as St. Petersburg, was slowdy and in- 



sensibly rising.' He also 



suggested 



that Sweden may 



rise more than Norway, and the northern more than the 

 southern part.' J He was led to these conclusions principally 

 by information obtained from the inhabitants and pilots 

 respecting marks which had been set on the rocks, and 

 partly by the occurrence of marine shells of recent species, 

 v/liich he had found at several points on the coast of Norway 

 above the level of the sea. Von Buch, therefore, has the 

 merit of being the first geologist who, after a personal ex- 

 amination of the evidence, declared in favour of the rise of 

 land in Scandinavia. 



The attention excited by this subject in the early part of 

 the last century, had induced many philosophers in Sweden 

 to endeavour to determine, by accurate observations, whether 

 the standard level of the Baltic was really subject to peri- 

 odical variations ; and under their direction, lines or grooves, 

 indicating the ordinary level of the water on a calm day, 

 together with the date of the year, were chiselled out upon 

 the rocks. In 1820--21, all the marks made before those 

 years were examined by the officers of the pilotage establish- 

 ment of Sweden ; and in their report to the Eoyal Academy 

 of Stockholm they declared, that on comparing the level of 

 the sea at the time of their observations with that indicated 

 by the ancient marks, they found that the Baltic was lower 

 relatively to the land in certain places, but the amount of 

 change during equal periods of time had not been everywhere 



^ Sect. 393. 



t Sect. 398. 



t Transl. of his Travels, p. 387. 



f 



