Geography and Travel. 1011 
west and southeast direction ; this is also the direction of the fjords 
that intersect them. Stromé and Osteré, the two largest, have 
summits of 800 and 970 metres, and a mean altitude of 300 metres; 
they are cut up by deep valleys which are continuations of the 
fjords. All the islands are elevated and surrounded by cliffs. 
he group is composed of beds of basalt, mingled with carbonifer- 
ous strata. The volcanoes which produced the basalt must have 
n well to the west of the archipelago. The islands have a very 
humid climate; Torshavn receives two metres of rain annually, 
spread over 267 days of the year. 
The Faroé Islands were colonized in the ninth century. Chris- 
topher Columbus visited them in 1467. The inhabitants retain 
some traits of the old Vikings; they are tall and strong, with 
blonde hair and red beards. The women do not cover the head. 
he sheep is to the inhabitants of the Faroés what the reindeer is 
to the Laplanders, and its flesh, with the produce of the fisheries 
and the eggs of sea birds, constitute the main food of the islanders. 
Thorshavn is the political centre, but its harbor is obstructed by ice 
in the winter. Another important port is Kirdebée. 
THE OSCILLATIONS oF THE SWEDISH Coast.—M. L. Holm- 
strom (Revue Scientifique, Sep. 8) brings together the varied obser- 
vations of Celsius, Runeberg, Gissler, Nordenanckar, Hällström, 
Wikström, Lyell, Erdmann, Bruzelius, Forssman, Bortzell, ant 
others, relative to the changes of level in the coast of Sweden. ‘There is 
full proof of a lowering of thesea level on the western coast of Sweden 
during the last forty years. Marks cut in the rock show the level- 
Ings in 1847, 1867, and 1870, and the present level of the seaweed 
indicates an annual sinking of 0", 40. M. Holmstrom states that 
he knows no fact tending to show that the Norwegian coasts are 
now changing level, but those of Finland seem to vary in an analo- 
gous manner to those of Sweden. M. Holmstrom does not con- 
sider that the lowering of the sea level is by itself a proof of the 
Tising of the land, since it is now well known that the ocean service 
1S not exactly spheroidal, but is elevated by the attraction of elevated 
continental masses. 
long as the relative masses of the continents remain the same 
no alteration can take place in the mean sea-level, but augmentation 
or diminution of the land masses cause a rising or falling of the 
-level, 
GEOGRAPHIC AL NEws.—EUuRoPE.— The mortality of Madrid 
during the last ten months has been forty-five per 1,000 and that 
of the last eight years has been 41.7. Epidemics of small-pox and 
diphtheria, caused by the defective sanitation of the city, largely 
account for this high mortality. 
