544 GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



at the bottom of the fjords than along their shores or at the head- 

 lands by which they are terminated seawards. 



On the other hand, according to Sir T. D. Lauder *, the pro- 

 montories are the places where we should chiefly look for them. 

 An inspection of the map prepared by the commission f appears 

 not to accord with the remarks of Mr. Darwin ; but I must ob- 

 serve, that I have not myself visited the greater number of the 

 larger fjords and sounds along the coast, and have not penetrated 

 to the bottom of several others, the investigation of which is neces- 

 sary to carry on these lines of level and fill up the gap which sepa- 

 rates the Komag -fjord from Kongshavnsfjeld. However this may 

 eventually prove, there can be no doubt, a priori, of the efficacy of 

 the cause in question considered generally. Amongst the currents, 

 those parallel to the direction of the coast penetrate less into the 

 fjords than the sounds ; but all of them may occasion here and 

 there submarine deposits, which, reaching the shore, may there 

 determine the formation of a bank, which otherwise would have no 

 existence. 



The prevailing winds, which are here most terrible when pro- 

 ceeding from the north-east, take a certain definite course, and drive 

 the sea along in well-marked directions, and from these and other 

 causes there seems to me no need to have recourse, with M. Keil- 

 hau, to great drifts of ice in order to account for these lines of 

 erosion : and indeed the debacle of ice along these coasts is com- 

 paratively unimportant, the fragments being almost lost before 

 reaching the Vargsund, so that we must presume very different 

 atmospheric conditions to have obtained in order that this cause 

 could be very energetic. 



The remains of marine animals, the erratic blocks, and the 

 rocks polished and marked with parallel striae form three groups 

 of geological facts, having reference to the phenomena we are now 

 considering ; they have been observed by M. Keilhau to recur 

 along the whole extent of the Norwegian coast, even into Fin- 

 mark ; the marine remains appearing among deposits, the form- 

 ation of which is intimately connected with that of the terraces 

 and other marks of the former presence of water. In Finmark 

 however, the localities in the interior whence marine shells are 

 obtained are hitherto few in number, and indeed it is only at 

 Talvig that I have obtained proof of the existence of fossils 

 above the level of the sea ; but this is partly accounted for when 

 we consider how few are the excavations in a country but thinly 

 peopled, and where the houses are merely wooden edifices placed 

 upon the surface. At Talvig however, by digging about half a 

 metre below the surface in a sheltered part of the bay, we laid 

 open a clayey bank containing Mya truncata and Tellina Baltica, 

 some of the specimens being remarkably fresh and even showing 

 vestiges of the epidermis. This bed was 7 metres above the sea 



* Ed. Phil. Tr. 1839. p. 10. 



f This map the translator has not been able to avail himself of. 



