rtions of Sweden and Finland; these indicate that the
movement is now almost _nil_ along the axial lines of the Baltic and the
Gulf of Finland, but increases in amplitude northwards to the Gulf of
Bothnia and in the direction of the main ridge of the _massif_ of southern
Sweden. At Stockholm the rate of elevation is approximately 0.47 metre (=
1.54 ft.) in a century.

The coast of the Baltic is rocky only in the island-studded region at the
head of the Baltic basin proper--a submerged lake-district--and the
littoral generally is a typical morainic land, the work of the last great
Baltic glacier. The southern margin of the Baltic is of peculiar interest.
From Schleswig eastwards to Luebeck Bay the coast is pierced by a number of
narrow openings or _Fohrden_, the result of encroachment of the sea caused
by subsidence. East of Luebeck, as far as the mouth of the Oder, these give
place to _Bodden_, ramified openings studded with islands: the structure
here resembles that of Scania in southern Sweden, a region once joined to
both Denmark and Pomerania by an isthmus which was severed by tectonic
movements. Beyond the Oder the coast-line is unbroken as far as the Gulf of
Danzig. It is then cut into by the estuaries of the Vistula, the Pregel and
the Memel. Here the westerly winds have full play, and the coast is rimmed
by a continuous line of dunes, which cut off the two great lagoons of the
_Frisches Haff_ and _Kurisches Haff_ by sandspits or _Nehrungen_.

The drainage area of the Baltic is relatively large. According to the
measurements of Sir J. Murray it extends to 461,450 sq. sea m. ( = 611,700
sq. English m.) The largest river-basin included in it is that of the Neva
in the east, and next in size come the Vistula and the Oder in the south.
The narrow parallel troughs, at right angles to the coast, which form the
drainage-system of Sweden and western Finland, are a remarkable feature.

[Sidenote: Level.]

Levellings from Swinemuende show that the mean level of the surface of the
Baltic at that point is 0.093 metres (= .305 ft.) below the surface of the
North Sea at Amsterdam, and 0.066 metres ( = .216 ft.) below its level at
Ostend. A line of levels from Swinemuende through Eger to the Adriatic
showed the mean level of the surface of the Baltic to be 0.499 metres (1.6
ft.) above that of the Adriatic Sea. The mean level of the surface of the
Baltic rises about 0.5 metres (1.6 ft.) from the coast of Holstein to
Memel, pro