1. The modern philosophers of Sweden seem agreed that the
waters of the Baltic gradually sink in a regular proportion,
which they have ventured to estimate at half an inch every
year. Twenty centuries ago, the flat country of Scandinavia
must have been covered by the sea; while the high lands lose
above the waters, as so many islands of various forms and
dimensions. Such indeed is the notion given us by Mela,
Pliny, and Tacitus, of the vast countries round the Baltic.
See in the Bibliotheque Raisonnee, tom. xl. and xlv. a large
abstract of Dalin's History of Sweden, composed in the
Swedish language.