of the Scratched Rock Surfaces. 17 
set down, sometimes in the midst of a valley, sometimes 
along its edges, nay, sometimes stretching right across, with 
only a small opening cut through at one side, obviously by 
a stream quietly escaping from a lake. Nor can we see 
whence such a flood could come. The mountain tops 
would not supply it ; nor would a sea wave in any form pro- 
duce the regularity and uniformity of the phenomena, nor 
transport the boulders, nor trace the furrows. 
Neither is Sir Charles Lyell’s theory of floating icebergs 
much more satisfactory. Hven were the striations such as 
icebergs could produce, which is not the case, some traces of 
the sea and its inhabitants would surely have been found on 
the higher levels, depressed beneath the sea, as the land, on 
this theory, was to the extent of 4000 feet at least ; since to 
that height the scratching has been distinctly traced. Arctic 
shells are indeed found abundantly among ourclays and sands, 
but never at a greater height than 600 feet above the sea. 
Further, it must be remembered that oscillations of the 
land, of such frequency and extent as this theory imagines, 
are eminently improbable in Norway, where the entire series 
of the secondary and tertiary strata are wanting, and where, 
therefore, the land has been singularly stationary. 
Shells from the Earlier and Later Beds of the Glacial For. 
mation. By Dr M. Sars, Professor of Natural History, 
Christiania. 
[The only beds here examined are in the southern part 
of Norway, and even of these the author states that the 
examination is far from complete. In explanation of the 
author's headings in the following list, it must be remem- 
bered that while the beds are to be found at all elevations 
from the sea-level to # height of 500 feet, yet at the lower 
levels (up to 200 feet) such shell-beds as present themselves 
on the surface belong to a later period; while the older beds 
must be sought either on the surface at the higher levels, 
or buried deep under the later clays and sands at the lower 
levels. But while this holds true in general, partial excep- 
tions to the rule may be expected, as in the case mentioned 
NEW SERIES,-—VOL. XVIII, NO. I.—JuLy 1863. c 
