291 
Prof. Milne — Across Enrope and Asia. 
brought about, which by those who talk and write about Tee and its 
actions is very often either ignored or forgotten, and tkis is tbe 
action of Floe or Coast Ice. As I saw some striking examples of 
the work done by tbis agent in the next section of rny journey along 
the coast of Finland towards St. Petersburg, I will not digress, but 
continue my itinerary. As the oscillatory movement of the land is 
intimately connected with the idea I wish to broach, I may here 
mention that near Stockholm we appearto have an axis about which 
the Baltic coast is moving. To the north it is rising, wbilst for 
some distance to the south it is sinking. 
After leaving Stockholm (Aug. llth) and its flagstones, which, 
like those of Gottenborg, are filled with sections of Orthoceras, I 
at once found myself amongst the archipelago of islands which stud 
the Southern and south-western shores of Finland. As the sea was 
smooth and the weather fine, I häd arnple opportunity of seeing every- 
thing around me. Islands were every where. In fact they were often 
so close together that they masked our route ; looking backwards 
we seemed to have sailed away from the land, whilst looking for- 
wards it seemed as if we were steering into it. Sometimes we passed 
so close to them that we might easily have pitched stones upon them. 
Where the water was more open, our course was shown by a white 
mark or a pile of stone upon the land, or by an upright pole Stand- 
ing on some sunken rock. 
There is every where evidence of reefs and shallow water. The 
islands vary very much in size, some have an area of several miles, 
whilst others consist of a mere rock just peeping from the surface of 
the water. They are generally destitute of Vegetation, but some are 
found capped with small clumps of dark-coloured stunted firs, whilst 
near the water they are bordered with a fringe of green, looking 
like bunches of alder. Novv every year, as the winter months come 
round, the water freezes, and every rock and island and the adjoin- 
ing mainland give birth to a fringe of ice. But this congealation 
does not go on quietly, it is continually interrupted. By the rise 
and fall of the tides it is raised and lowered on the shore, strong 
currents carry portions of it away, the wind and the driving in of 
floating ice and other causes all tend to destroy any steady forma- 
tion of a sheet of ice like that which forms on small fresliwater 
lakes and ponds. In this way the first fringe of ice most likely 
attached to pebbles, boulders, and materials, to which, whilst resting 
on the shore, it has become cemented, are driven high and dry upon 
the land, scraping, scratching, and moulding in a definite manner all 
the rocks over which they pass. Or again, this fringe with its load 
of stones may by winds and tides be forcibly torn from its birth- 
place, and borne away to do its work of moulding and depositing of 
boulders at some distant locality. 
Grinding and moulding actions of this sort., together with the 
transportation and deposition of boulders, will take place chiefly 
during the formation and breaking up of this icy barrier, which 
will be in the fall and spring of every year. And the action is by 
no means confined to Finland, but is one which annually occurs 
