388 Scientific Intelligence — Geology. 



appears to indicate the motion of ice from the land towards the sea.— 

 Communicated hy W. C. Trevelyan. 



32. The Geology of Norway, as connected with the absence of a 

 Feudal Nobility, and the want of great Public Buildings. — Two cir- 

 cumstances, which may be called accidental, concurred, with the phy- 

 sical circumstances of the country, soil, and clime, to prevent the 

 rise of a feudal nobility in Norway at the period (the ninth century) 

 when feudality was establishing itself over the rest of Europe. One 

 was, the colonization of Iceland by that class which, in other countries, 

 became feudal lords ; the other was the conquests in England and in 

 France, by leaders who drew off all of the same class of more war- 

 like habits than the settlers in Iceland, and opened a more promis- 

 ing field for their ambition abroad in those expeditions, than in 

 struggling at home against the supremacy of Harald Haarfager. In 

 his successful attempt to reduce all the small kings, or district kings, 

 under his authority, he was necessarily thrown upon the people for 

 support, and their influence would be naturally increased by the 

 suppression, through their aid, of small independent kings. This 

 struggle was renewed at intervals until the introduction of Christianity 

 by King Olaf the Saint ; and the two parties appear to have sup- 

 ported the two different religions ; the small kings and their party 

 adhering to the old religion of Odin, under which the small kings, 

 as godars, united the offices of judge and priest, and levied certain 

 dues, and presided at the sacrificial meetings as judges as well as 

 priests ; and the other party, which included the mass of the people, 

 supported Christianity, and the supremacy of King Olaf, because it 

 relieved them from the exactions of the local kings, and from inter- 

 nal war and pillage. The influence of the people, and of their 

 Things, gained by the removal to other countries of that class which 

 at home would have grown probably into a feudal aristocracy. In 

 Iceland an aristocratic republic was at first established, and in Nor- 

 mandy and Northumberland all that was aristocratic in Norway 

 found an outlet for its activity. 



A physical circumstance, also, almost peculiar to Norway y and 

 apparently very little connected with the social state of a people, 

 was of great infiuence, in concurrence with these two accidental cir- 

 cumstances, in preventing the rise of an aristocracy . The stone of 

 the Peninsula in general, and of Norway in particular^ is gneiss, 

 or other hard primary rock, which is worked with dijiculty, and 

 breaks up in rough shapeless lumps, or in thin schistose plates ; 

 and walls cannot be constructed of such building materials without 

 great labour, time, and command of cement. Limestone is not 

 found in abundance in Norway, and is rare in situations in which 

 it can be made and easily transported; and even clay, which is 

 used as a bedding or cement in some countries for rough lumps of 

 stone in thick walls, is scarce in Norway. Wood has of necessity, 

 in all times and with all classes, been the only building material. 



