Norway

Coast.

The Norwegian mountains fall abruptly to the sea, and the coastline almost throughout is cliffbound. The land fea tures are continued as numerous islands, estimated at 150,000, which fringe the mainland. This island fringe, occurring also in a modified form along the Swedish coast, is, in Norway, termed the Skargdrd (skerry-fence). This fringe and the fjord-coast are most fully developed from Stavanger nearly as far as the North cape, but only between Stavanger and Flekkefjord can the coast be considered smooth and moderately free from islands. Here, particularly north of Egersund, a narrow lowland, abundant in peat bogs, is fringed by a flat, open coast, dangerous to shipping. The channels within the island line are of incalculable value to a people largely dependent on coastyise navigation. In fact, the voyage northward from Stavanger may be made in quiet waters almost throughout. Only at rare intervals, as off the port of Haugesund, or when crossing the mouth of some large fjord, need the open sea be encountered. At some points large steamers follow the carefully marked deep-water channel, between cliff edges which seem to overhang the vessel on either side. Small vessels, fishing or trading between the fjord-side villages, navi gate narrow ramifying "leads" (leder) where the sole danger is the tidal current, often exceedingly strong. The largest island is Hindi!. (Lofoten and Vesteraalen group), about 85o sq.m. in area.

Glaciers.

The relatively insignificant Norwegian glaciers of to-day have unimportant effects compared with the glaciation consequent on the presence of the enormous ice-fields in the last Ice age. To these latter glaciers is owed much of the smoothing of islands and the fjord character of the coast. The rounded nakedness of the mountains, the U-shaped valleys, the shelf-like ledges over which the rivers plunge, to produce the "white coal" of Norway, and the pockets of finely divided fertile soils in rock basins are all direct legacies. The level terraces and raised beaches which exist on some of the coasts and prove such de sirable sites for settlement are mainly composed of glacial debris once deposited below sea-level but now elevated by land oscil lation. To-day Norway still contains the largest European ice field—the Jostedalsbrae. This is some 400-500 sq.m. in extent : from it glaciers run to within ft. of sea-level. Jotunheim, though glaciated, has the ice-cap broken by deep valleys, also as it lies further east the precipitation is lower and the summer temperatures higher—two factors seriously affecting the size of ice-caps. Between Hardanger fjord and its branch, Sorfjord, is Folgefond—I r o sq.m.—and the most southerly considerable area in Norway. Second in point of size to the Jostedalsbrae, but not inferior in interest, is Svartisen-23o sq.m. in area, from which glaciers descend almost to sea-level. In about lat. 70° a small glacier, the Engabrae, actually enters the sea in Jokulfjord (a branch of Kvenangfjord) and gives birth to miniature ice bergs. The Seiland glacier (46 sq.m.), on the island of the same name south of Hammerfest, is the most northerly Norwegian example. The snow line in Norway varies in height with aspect and amount of precipitation, but it is everywhere fairly low— ranging from below 3,00o f t. in Seiland to slightly above 5,000 ft. in south Norway.

Many islands, chiefly northern, are of great elevation; thus the jagged granite peaks characteristic of the Lofotens reach about 4,000 feet. Other interesting islands are Hornelen, near the mouth of Nordfjord, rising nearly sheer for 3,00o ft. above the sea; the well-named Torghatten ("the market hat"), north of Nam sos, completely pierced, 400 ft. above the sea, by a vast natural tunnel, which on occasion reaches upwards of 200 ft. in height and 8o ft. in width; the quaintly shaped small Hestmanno ("horseman island"), intersected by the Arctic circle, justly named from its form. Bare rock is the dominant feature of the

coast and islands, save where a few green fields surrounding a farmstead occupy a miniature level terrace. The oscillation of the land relative to sea-level is illustrated by marine terraces, 600 ft. above the present sea-level, near Trondhjem, and by the numerous former beach lines of north Norway, which are occa sionally in pairs at different heights. Nevertheless, at some points (as on the Jaderen coast) glaciated "giants' kettles" may be observed even below the level of high tide thus indicating the greater level of the land towards the close of the Glacial epoch.

Fjords.

Oslo fjord, opening from the north angle of the Kattegat and Skagerak, differs from the great fjords of the west. Its shores are neither high nor precipitous. It is shallower, wider, and is surrounded by the most extensive lowland in Nor way. It is studded with numerous small islands. Thence, past Lindesnes, to Bokn fjord there are many small fjords, 30o fathoms in extreme depth, but even the intermittent inner lead which can be traced to Flekkefjord ceases to exist beyond. Bokn fjord is broad and island-studded, but throws off several inner arms, of which Lyse fjord, due east of Stavanger, is 25 m. long and half a mile wide, with precipitous walls. It is the most beautiful and mysterious fjord in south-west Norway. Hardanger fjord (355 ft. extreme depth) penetrates the land for 7o m. and is frequently visited, for it lies near to shipping routes which converge on Bergen, but its beauty is exceeded by that of Sogne fjord and Nordfjord farther north. Sogne is the largest and deepest fjord of all; its head is over ioo m. from the sea; its maximum width scarcely exceeds 2 m., and the main channel is 50o-66o fathoms deep. Some of the northern arms intersect the snow-clad Joste dalsbrae, and their dark blue waters have a surface layer showing a milky tinge imparted by glacier-fed streams. Nordfjord (34o ft. in extreme depth) touches the northern side of the Jostedals brae and is popular with tourists. Stor fjord opens inland from Aalesund ; it is over 70 m. long and is wild and imposing. Trond hjem fjord (30o ft. in extreme depth), the next great fjord northward, broadens inland from a narrow entrance, but lacks grandeur as the elevation of the land is reduced at the Trondhjem "narrowing." Immediately north of Trondhjem, the fjords, though long, are not so extensive and the coastline loses its grandeur, hut north of Salt fjord, which lies beyond the great Svartisen icefield, the scenery is unsurpassed. Salt fjord is connected with Skjerstad fjord by three narrow channels, where the water, at ebb and flow, forms powerful rapids. The Lofoten islands and Ves teraalen are separated from the mainland by the Vest fjord (34o ft. deep), which is continued inland by Ofoten fjord, on which is situated Narvik, the railhead town for the line from Sweden. The main fjords north of Vesteraalen have a general northerly direc tion ; among them is Lyngs fjord near Tromso, with high flanking cliffs. The softer and looser schists are more prevalent in the north, hence the fjords are wider, branched and interlaced, par ticularly in Finmark. The Alte fjord (225 f t. extreme depth) is remarkable for the vegetation on its shores. From Lofoten north there is a chain of larger islands : Senjen, Ringvadso, Soro, Seiland and Magero, thus extending to the most northerly point, but hereafter the Skargard P.nds abruptly. The coast to the east is of widely different character; flat mountain wastes descend precipi tously to a sea destitute of islands, save Vardi5, with two low islets at the eastern extremity of Norway. The chief fjords are Porsanger and Tana, opening north, and Varanger opening east. North of the last fjord the land is low and the landscape monoton ous; on the south of it a few islands and branch fjords break the smoothness of the coast line.