Abstract
PROBABLY no feature of Scandinavian geology has been more frequently discussed than the remarkable lines of terrace which have been traced along the slopes of the coast, even up into the far northern fjords. Certainly no stranger, even if ignorant of geology, can visit these regions without being impressed by the freshness and persistence of these “parallel roads,”which wind in and out among the intricate navigation of strait and sound islet and archipelago. From the time of Celsius downwards a continually increasing literature has been devoted to this subject, and now Dr. Lehmann, of the Realschule, in Halle, adds another essay to the pile. He discusses at length and rejects the theories of erosion by glaciers and by floating ice, and adopts that of breaker-action. But probably no exclusive theory is correct. Unquestionably Norway has been overridden by land-ice, scarped and notched by coast-ice, as well as cut into by tides and breakers. That the terraces mark lines of former sea-level seems so self-evident that it hardly deserves more than a simple mention of the fact. But when these lines were cut out of the rock and the land was a hundred feet or more lower than it is now, the coasts were doubtless cumbered with ice, and while the breakers were grinding out a platform from the solid rock, their work was probably expedited by drifting masses of floe-ice. Dr. Lehmann's pamphlet is useful for the collected references it contains to recent literature on the subject. But it is needlessly voluminous.
Ueber ehemalige Strandlinien in anstehendem Fels in Norwegen.
Dr. R. Lehmann. (Halle, 1879.)
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Ueber ehemalige Strandlinien in anstehendem Fels in Norwegen . Nature 19, 578 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/019578a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019578a0