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In order to explain the extension of the »åsar» from nortli to south®,
to which Eric Benzelius had called his attention, he advances two
alternative interpretations. According to the one it is supposed that the
»åsar» were thrown up, by the tidal waves, a t the time when the sea
stood over the whole land, and were thus deposited parallel witli them;
according to the other interpretation it is supposed that the cause was
the winds, continually blowiug in an east to west or in the contrary
direction, in aualogy with the present trade winds.
Although we now know that the »åsar» were not formed in the ocean,
vet as late as 1868 they were supposed by A. Erdmann to be raised beaches.
The verv constitution of the »åsar», in part of sand11, in part of shingle,
together with the rounded and ground form12 of the stones in the latter
case, is further brought forward as a proof of their formation in the
water. The mountains of limestone also bear witness, partly by their
formation of laver on layer and, partly by the inclusion of animal remains
in the stone, »that they [the limestone mountains] were an oceanic mud
and a refuse».
Neither was the phenomenon of the erratics unnoticed. In regard
to the question of the presence in the »åsar» of rounded stones it is
consequently advanced,18 that stones of widely different kinds, one
car-ried thither from one quarter, another from another quarter, are there
met together. Attention is further called to the large erratics which are
often found many miles from their original cliffs. Swedenborg supposes
that these stones were removed by the help of the water; he first
describ-es the loosening of the stones from the mountains11, which would be
actively advanced if the tides were strong, so that the rocks would at
one time lie dry, exposed to the sun’s heat, at another time covered by
water. Pieces from the rock could in this way have been loosened and
afterwards been carried awa}r by the waves. In a special chapter
attention is called to the power of water in strong motion to move blocks of
stone, especially when the water is salt, (for then the stones lose more of
their weight), and when the mass of water in motion is deep.1 In this
manner Swedenborg endea vors to explain13 why widely extended regions
are covered »bv large stones rolled on one another», »strewn about like
sand», »cast up into heights and hiils», and so forth.
Swedenborg also believed that he miglit bring forward as a proof of
See also the special discussion of this question in Swkdknbokg’s Eepositio Legis
Jlgdrustatkae, ete.
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