CHAP. XXXIV] OSCILLATION OF LEVEL. 259 



tury in the neighbourhood of Stockholm, to the 

 south of which the upward movement ceases ; and in 

 Scania,, the southernmost part of Sweden, appears 

 to give place to a slight movement in an opposite 

 or downward direction.* 



We also know that part of the west coast of 

 Greenland, extending about 600 miles north and 

 south, has been subsiding for three or four centuries 

 between latitudes 60 and 69 N.f But whether, 

 in this instance, the rate of depression varies in 

 different parts of the sinking area, has not yet been 

 determined. In speculating, however, on the manner 

 in which the valleys of the Mississippi and its tribu 

 taries may have been affected by subterranean move 

 ments, we are at least authorised by analogy to 

 assume that the downward movement may have 

 been greater in the more inland part of the con 

 tinent, just as we have seen in 1811-12, that the 

 &quot; sunk country&quot; west of New Madrid subsided, 

 while the level of the delta at New Orleans under 

 went no sensible change. If, then, the vertical 

 movement in the interior, in and near the valley of 

 the Ohio, for example, were greater than near the 

 Gulf, as if, in the former case, it were two and a half 

 feet in a century, and near the sea only half that 

 amount, it would follow that the general fall of the 

 rivers would be lessened. They would deposit all 

 their heavier, and some even of their finer sediment, 

 in their channels, instead of having power to carry it 

 to the sea. They would fill up their beds, and often 



* Principles of Geology, Seventh Ed. p. 506. 

 t See &quot; Principles,&quot; ibid. 



