CONTOUR OF THE COUNTRY. 231 
Finland; it is more marked on the northern parts of the 
Gulf of Finland. In the stretch of land in which it is 
most apparent—mainly between Torned’ and Wasa, it is 
calculated to be proceeding at the rate of 44 feet per 
century ; the south coast has risen within the hundred 
years 2 feet, or, more exactly, 1:93 feet. Let the thoughts 
go back. some 700 years, when the country was first 
conquered by the Swedes, at which time the coast was in 
some places 14 feet, and in some 314 feet higher than it is 
now, and what a different aspect must the country have 
presented. And could we carry our thoughts forward to a 
remote future we might possibly reach a time when Fin- 
land shall have freed herself altogether from the grasp of 
the sea, and what are now gulfs—that of Bothnia and that. 
of Finland—alike shall have shrunk to narrow and 
insignificant channels, fed only by the rivers flowing into 
them. 
‘Both in this which may be called Finland proper, and in 
the Nyland, we meet with rising grounds and sheets of water. 
These gradually become more numerous and more exten- 
sive as we advance into the interior, and to the east, until 
at length we step from one height to another, and from 
one lake to another, until fancy suggests, as we look upon 
inland seas and rivers, bedecked with innumerable islets, 
that it must be some marine landscape upon which we 
gaze. Thus does the eastern portion of Finland presenta 
striking contrast to the western ; and while the coast, with 
its cultivated fields, and romantic island studded creeks, 
has lured the Swedish settler by its natural resemblance 
to his home, the highlands have an impress of earnest- 
ness, firmness, and sincerity, corresponding to the peculiar 
national character of the Finnish people’ 
The reference made by Dr Helm to the upheaval of the 
land seems to me to require some illustration. Such 
changes in the altitude of portions of the earth’s surface 
are not unknown elsewhere. In a volame entitled’ 
