Backbone of Finland

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 132, 7 June 1939, Page 4

Backbone of Finland

MARKS OF ICE AOE With her countless lakes, island* and illimitable forests; with her desolate moors strewn with granite bsuiders eometimes as large as houses, sometimes suggesting by their fantastic shapes huge carvings such as those ,of Easter Island, made by some extinct race of giants Finland i* unlike any other country in the world. Such is th* way a British visitor saw Finland; and such i» the way most foreigners ses it. Of all the sights in this northland, few compete with the ever-present granite for tourist interest. This rock is one of the moet important factors in giving the country its extraordinaryeffect Of homogeneity (which is not meant to imply, however, that variety is lacking). The trowel marks of the Ice Age persist everywhere. The gigantic boulders looming over Finnish farms and villages are unforgettable reminders of the primeval day when a sheer wall of thousands of miles of ice fled melting back north and dropped willynilly these souvenirs of its visit to Finland. In the moet civilised of Finnish cities as well as in the remotest of Finnish wilds, the granite rears its massive back ... or even out at sea along the coasts, where innumerable islands break through the water in their armour of granite. The spectacle cannot be escaped on the most central streets of Holsinki. For Finnish architects long ago succumbed to ite irresistible influence. Outstanding among the numerous granite buildings are the famous railroad station designed by Eliel Saarinen and the much-admired new Diet building, in itself erected on top of a low granite hill, which has happily been left naked and unmarred in the immediate area. Indeed, all over Helsinki might be seen similar virgin rock, defiant hills and cliffs which throw grotesque shadows across surrounding streets and houses. Finnish rocks belong primarily in tho Archaen category, which means tho very oldest rocks of the earth’s crust. They are invariably hard, more or less metamorphic, and completely crystalline; and both in the wild state and tamed to the service of builders are often of impressive beauty. Among them granite occupies a particularly conspicuous and admired place. In addition to Finland, almost the whole of Scandinavia and East Karelia belong to this same Archaen territory, professionaly dubbed Feuno-Scandinavia-American and British laymen may bo interested to know that similar Archill a regions are found in the north-ea-stem sections of North America and in tho Highlands of Scotland.