490 HOWORTH ON SURFACE ELEVATION IN ARCTIC REGIONS. 



after examining some of the ancient marks, that the evidence 

 formerly adduced in favom' of the change of level, both on the 

 coasts of Sweden and Finland, was full and satisfactory. Inter 

 alia he mentions rocks and boulders strewn over the shoals, 

 which have been observed to increase in height and dimensions 

 within the previous half-century. Some formerly known as 

 dangerous sunken rocks are now only hidden when the water 

 is the highest. Similar points have grown to long reefs, while 

 others have been changed from a reef annually submerged to a 

 small islet on which a few lichens, a fir- seedling, and a few 

 blades of grass attest that the shoal has at length been fairly 

 changed into dry land. Long fiords and narrow channels, once 

 separating wooded islands, have been deserted by the sea within 

 the memory of living witnesses on several parts of the coast. 

 It is well known that the southern extremity of Scania is 

 sinking; the proofs will be collected in another paper. On 

 the eastern or Baltic side of Sweden Sir Charles Lyell found 

 the first unmistakable evidence of rising at Calmar, in 56° 41' 

 N. lat. The foundations of the castle there, which had originally 

 been subaqueous, were found to have risen 4 feet in four cen- 

 turies. At Stockholm there were found striking proofs of change 

 since the Baltic acquired its present tenants — Testacea, found 

 there 70 feet above the sea-level, being identical with those 

 now found in the adjacent sea at Sodertelji. A little further 

 south, strata of sand, clay, and marl, more than 100 feet high, and 

 containing shells of species now inhabiting the Bothnian Gulf, 

 were found. The three lakes of Husar, Ladu, and Uggel, which 

 formerly (temp. Charles IX.) constituted the Gulf of Fiskartorp, 

 had grown much shallower, and in part become dry land. At 

 Upsala, 40 miles N.N.W. of Stockholm, brackish- water plants 

 were found in meadows where there are no salt-springs ; proof 

 that the sea has recently retired. The Marsh at Oregrud, 40 miles 

 north of Upsala, had risen 5^ inches in the interval since 1820. 

 At Gefle, 40 miles to the N.W., are low pastures, where the 

 inhabitants' fathers remembered boats and even ships floating. 

 At Pitea, in the Bothnian Gulf, the land had gained a mile in 

 45 years ; at Lulea, a mile in 28 years ; and at Toruea it was 

 advancing rapidly, according to M. Reclus,* at the rate of 5 feet 

 3 inches in a century. 



These facts, which might be multiplied, suffice to show that the 

 Baltic coast of Sweden, north of about the 56th parallel, has been 

 recently rising from the sea. 



M. Reclus argues that the Baltic communicated but recently 

 with the North Sea by a wide channel, the deepest depressions 

 of which are now occupied by the Lakes Malar, Hjelmar, and 

 Wener, considerable heaps of oyster-shells being found in several 

 places on the heights commanding these lakes. Similar beds are 



The Earth," vol. ii. p. 622. 



