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Humboldt, Alexander von, 1769-1859

"COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1"

Magazine', 3d
Series, vol. ii., p. 309.

The maximum of this elevating
p 296
force appears to be in the north of Lapland, and to diminish gradually to
the south toward Calmar and Solvitzborg. Lines marking the ancient level of
the sea in pre-historic times are indicated throughout the whole of Norway,*
from Cape Lindesnaes to the extremity of the North Cape, by banks of shells
identical with those of the present seas, and which have lately been most
accurately examined by Bravais during his long winter sojourn at Bosekop.

[footnote] *Keilhan, in 'Nyt Mag. fur Naturvid.', 1832, bd. i., p. 105-254;
bd. ii., p. 57; Bravais, 'Surles Lignes d'ancien Niveau de la Mer', 1843, p.
15-40. See, also, Darwin, "on the Parallel Roads of Glen-Roy and Lochaber,"
in 'Philos. Trans. for' 1839, p. 60.

These banks lie nearly 650 feet above the present mean level of the sea, and
reappear, according to Keilhau and Eugene Robert, in a north-northwest
direction on the coasts of Spitzbergen, opposite the North Cape. Leopold
von Buch, who was the first to draw attention to the high banks of shells at
Tromsoe (latitude 69 degrees 40'), has, however, shown that the more ancient
elevations on the North Sea appertain to a different class of phenomena,
from the regular and gradual retrogressive elevations of the Swedish shores
in the Gulf of Bothnia.


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