PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 



1834-1835. No. 19. 



December 18, 1834. 



SIR BENJAMIN COLLINS BRODIE, Bart., Vice-President, in 



the Chair. 



The Rev. John Barlow, M.A. ; Rev. James William Bellamy, B.D. ; 

 William Brockedon, Esq. ; Thomas Galloway, Esq., M.A.; Bis- 

 set Hawkins, M.D.j Col. Andrew Leith Hay, K.H., M.P.; Fran- 

 cis Kiernan, Esq. • George Lowe, Esq.; Richard Owen, Esq.; 

 Benjamin Phillips, Esq. ; Richard Saumarez, Esq.; Charles John 

 Kemys Tynte, Esq., M.P.; and John Gardnor Williamson, Esq.; were 

 elected Fellows of the Society. 



The reading of a paper, entitled, " On the Proofs of a gradual 

 Rising of the Land in certain parts of Sweden." By Charles Lyell, 

 Esq., F.R.S., was resumed, but not concluded. 



January 8, 1835. 

 The REV. PHILIP JENNINGS, D.D., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



On the Proofs of a gradual Rising of the Land in certain parts of 

 Sweden. By Charles Lyell, Esq,, F.R.S. 



An opinion has long been entertained that the waters of the Baltic 

 and even of the whole Northern Ocean, have been gradually sinking ; 

 and the purport of the present paper is, to communicate the obser- 

 vations which the author made during the summer of 1834, in refer- 

 ence to this curious question. In his way to Sweden he examined 

 the eastern shores of the Danish islands of Moen and Seeland, but 

 neither there, nor in Scania, could he discover any indications of a 

 recent rising of the land ; nor was there any tradition giving support 

 to such a supposition. The first place he visited, where any elevation 

 of land had been suspected, was Calmar ; the fortress of which, built 

 in the year 1030, appeared, on examination, to have had its founda- 

 tions originally laid below the level of the sea, although they are now 

 situated nearly two feet above the present level of the Baltic. Part 

 of the moat on one side of the castle, which is believed to have been 

 formerly filled with water from the sea, is now dry, and the bottom 

 covered with green turf. At Stockholm, the author found many 

 striking geological proofs of a change in the relative level of the sea 

 and land, since the period when the Baltic has been inhabited by the 



