HOWORTH ON SURFACE ELEVATION IN ARCTIC REGIONS. 489 



Other districts, namely, that we seem to have arrived at a critical 

 tm-niiig-point in the world's history, where areas which have 

 long been rising have become quiescent or even begun to sink 

 again. I cannot enter into the details of the Scandinavian con- 

 troversy which have been collected by Sir Charles Lyell, in his 

 * Bakerian Lecture' on this subject and elsewhere, but will con- 

 tent myself Avith quoting the more striking authorities, with 

 whom I agree. Early in the last century Celsius expressed his 

 opinion that the waters both of the Baltic and Northern Ocean 

 were gradually subsiding, and from numerous observations in- 

 ferred that the rate of depression was about 40 Swedish inches 

 in a century. In support of this position he alleged that there 

 were many rocks both on the shores of the Baltic and of the 

 Ocean known to have been once sunken reefs and dangerous to 

 navigators, but which were in his time above water; that the 

 Gulf 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. He also maintained 

 that in the time of the ancients Scandinavia was what they 

 described it to be, namely, an island, and that it became a 

 peninsula some time between the days of Pliny and the ninth 

 century.* This view was opposed by several writers. Playfair, 

 in 1802, accepted the views of Celsius, and argued that the 

 change was due to the rise of the land. In 1807 Von Buch, 

 after returning from a tour in Scandinavia, announced his con- 

 viction that the whole country from Frederickshall in Norway 

 to Abo in Finland, and perhaps as far as St. Petersburg, was 

 slowly and insensibly rising. He was led to these conclusions 

 principally by information obtained from the inhabitants and 

 pilots, and in part by the occurrence of marine shells of recent 

 species which he had found at several points on the coasts of 

 Norway above the level of the sea. He also mentions the 

 marks set on the rocks. | These discoveries induced several 

 Swedish philosophers to have certain rocks grooved at the level 

 of the water in calm weather, with the date of each added. In 

 1820 and 1821 the marks were examined by the officers of the 

 pilotage-service, who reported to the Royal Academy of Stock- 

 holm. From this Report it appeared that along the whole 

 coast of the northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia the water 

 was lower than formerly. New marks were at the same time 

 made. In 1834 Sir Charles Lyell made an elaborate survey of 

 the district, and published the result, as the " Bakerian Lecture," 

 in the " Philosophical Transactions " for 1835. He reports that 

 in the interval between 1821 and 1834, the land appeared to 

 have risen in certain places north of Stockholm 4 or 5 inches, 

 and he convinced himself during his visit to Sweden, after con- 

 versing with many civil-engineers, pilots, and fishermen, and 



* Lyell's "Principles of Geology," 9th edition, p. 520. 



t Trans, of " Vou Buch's Travels," 387, quoted in Lyell, op. cit. 



