RESEARCHES IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN, ETC. 



219 



" It seems to be the common opinion that the continental coasts 

 have been depressed at places and at other places elevated. I 

 believe a thorough investigation must prove that this view is not 

 correct. There are evidences that the mean level of the 

 continental shore line has been very nearly the same for a long 

 period. 



" The coastal platform is a very characteristic feature, across the 

 whole of the Norwegian coast, forming a belt of low islands. The 

 coastal platform is situated about 100 metres below present sea 

 level and 100 metres above . . . 



" Its surface is nearly horizontal. It is a fact that a similar 

 coast platform does not seem to exist along the coast of Finland. 

 There it seems to be represented by raised terraces. Along the 

 west coast of Scotland there is an imperfect coast platform. 



"The continental shelf along the Norwegian coast varies greatly 

 as to depth and width. It is in some places high and narrow, lying 

 at a mean depth of 200-300 feet, while at other places it is very 

 broad and deep, lying between 700-900 feet below sea level. The 

 shelf must therefore have been in solid rock. . . ." 



All these evidences prove that the shelf must be built up of rock 

 and have only been cut by erosion. They are evidently built up by 

 coastal deposition of waste. 



(Other extracts read in full.) 



Professor Lobley, F.G.S. — We owe our gratitude to the author for 

 his interesting remarks. It is a question that he has paid great atten- 

 tion to for many years, and he has brought before the Institute 

 several very interesting papers on the subject of submerged 

 river valleys. The Chairman has also read some very 

 interesting extracts from Nansen's writings, but it seems to me 

 that Professor Hull's point of view is quite different from that 

 of Nansen. Nansen in his statement dwells principally on the 

 coastal platform and the continental platform. Professor Hull 

 principally dwells upon the submerged valleys across these plat- 

 forms, which Dr. Nansen does not refer to in the passages quoted.* 



* Professor Lobley only refers to the passages above quoted, but 

 Nansen, in his work, repeatedly points to the existence of deep river 

 chaunels crossing the continental platform below the surface of the 

 Arctic Ocean. — E. H. 



