CHAPTER V. PRESENT RISE OF LAND IN SWEDEN AND NORWAY-IS IT A FACT THAT IT DOES RISE? THAT a considerable part of the continent of N. Europe is at the present time undergoing an upward movement is positively asserted in all recent English works of geology, and is generally believed by geologists. Thus, in an elementary school-book it is stated that "the Scandinavian Peninsula offers a fine example of tranquil movements of elevation and depression." The phenomenon, if real, is remarkable in a geological point of view, because it is effected entirely without the interposition of earthquakes, which are almost unknown in Scandinavia. Thus, while the fact itself is doubtful, geology can furnish no reason why it should occur, which is a strong prima facie argument against it. Linnæus, it is true, shared in the belief of a rise, but in his time no attempt had been made at accurate observation. Von Buch, in 1807, was the first 1 Geikie's Geology, p. 66. geologist who, from information derived from inhabitants and pilots on the spot, declared his conviction that the whole of Scandinavia was slowly and insensibly rising. In recent times marks have been made on rocks on the shores of the Baltic, and observations with levels taken both on the Swedish and Prussian coasts. The results hitherto have not been satisfactory; no two sets of observations, made even by those who assert a rise, agree as to the rate and amount of it; and some of them throw doubt on the existence of any rise whatever. Sir Charles Lyell having visited the Baltic, 1834, on purpose, concluded that he had ascertained by a comparison of measurements, made at different periods, that the land had risen by an insensible motion,-Principles, vol. i. p. 314; but in vol. ii. p. 190, of the same work, he evinces doubts whether the land had risen 2 feet, or 10 inches, or it might be less, in a century, "in certain places north of Stockholm." Much stress is laid by Von Buch, Lyell, and others, on the existence of beds of sea-shells of existing species, at various heights considerably above the Baltic, but no light is thrown on the time or mode of their deposition, and we cannot suppose that Wales is at present emerging from the sea merely from the discovery of sea-shells on Moel Trivaen, which may have been placed there before the creation of man. The question we have to deal with is confined to causes now in action, and we seek to ascertain what is going on at the present time. So much uncertainty prevails on the subject of the shores of the Baltic, that it is worth while to compare the conflicting evidence brought together by Sir Charles Lyell, which prevailed in convincing him that a rise is now really going on in Scandinavia over an area of 1000 miles N. and S., and of unknown distance E. and W., increasing as we approach North Cape.1 ASSERTION. "In parts of Sweden, and the shores and islands of the Gulf of Bothnia, proofs have been obtained that the land is experiencing, and has experienced for centuries, a slow upheaving movement." -Lyell's Elements, p. 49. MODIFICATION. The investigations of MM. Lovén, Erdmann, Nordenskiöld, and others, made since my visit to Sweden in 1834, have on the whole tended to confirm the idea previously entertained, that some changes are now going on in the relative level of land and sea in certain parts of the Swedish coast, though they consider them to be probably local. With a view of accurately de 1 Antiquity of Man, p. 61. ASSERTION. Sir Charles Lyell examined in 1834 some marks made by Swedish surveyors four years before. "In that interval the land appeared to me to have risen at certain places north of Stockholm, as near Gefle, for example, about 4 inches, or at the rate of less than 2 feet per century. MODIFICATION. termining the reality of the movement, and its amount and direction, they have instituted a regular series of annual observations, which, however, have not yet been continued long enough to lead to positive results.-Principles, 1867, p. 314. Lord Selkirk, after examining the marks on the rocks, declares, "There is so much fluctuation in the sealevel from day to day, owing to the action of the wind and other causes, that the observations of a casual visitor are of no real value in determining the average water-level." - But at Stockholm, I inferred Lord Selkirk, Geological from the position of certain aged oak-trees only 8 feet above the level of the Baltic, that the rise could not have been at a greater rate than 10 inches in a century, and might be less."-Lyell's Principles, ii. p. 186. "In seaport towns all along Journal, 1867, p. 187. "Several towns, also, on ASSERTION. the coast of Scania there are streets below the high-water level of the Baltic, and in some cases below the level of the lowest tide. Thus, when the wind is high at Malmö, the water overflows one of the present streets, and some years ago some excavations showed an ancient street in the same place 8 feet lower, and it was then seen that there had been an artificial raising of the ground, doubt less in consequence of that subsidence. There is also a street at Trelleborg, and another at Skanör, a few inches below high-water mark, and a street at Ystad is exactly on a level with the sea, at which it could not have been originally built."- Lyell's Principles, ii. p. 191. "The upward movement now in progress in parts of Norway and Sweden, extends, as I have elsewhere1 shown, MODIFICATION. the shores of the Baltic, at Lubeck, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, and others, after 600 and even 800 years, are as little elevated above the sea as at the era of their foundation, being now close to the water's edge. The lowest part of Dantzic was no higher than the mean level of the sea in the year 1000; and after 8 centuries its relative position remains exactly the same."-Lyell's Principles, ii. "The rate of upheaval was said to be greatest at the North Cape, but no accurate scientific proof of this fact has 1 Principles, 11th edit. chap. xxxi. E |