RELATION BETWEEN ANCIENT AND EXISTING PHENOMENA. 23 



these limits the coast has few bays, and fewer still of these channel-like indentations. On the 

 eastern coast of the continent we observe the same general fact. To the north of the equator 

 the coast is singularly even in its outline, until we reach Maine, north of latitude d3°, where, as 

 may be seen on a good map, fiords become very numerous, and deep and comj^lex in their long 

 windings and ramifications. The same remarks will apply to the eastern continent. The 

 fiords of Norway are well known, and this coast is a singular contrast to that of France, Spain, 

 and Africa."* 



The intimate relation between these fiords and the deposit of boulders has been observed by 

 several geological writers, who have considered their formation as a part of the history of the 

 drift period, having been formed by the grinding, polishing, and grooving action of the immense 

 amount of broken rock carried down into the lower depths of the then existing seas. The rocks 

 in the neighborhood of the Scandinavian fiords are worn ofi", polished, and scratched, efiiects 

 which may be traced down even below the level of the sea ; it is in the softer rocks that the 

 deepest excavations occur. The lines of grooving are in the same direction with the fiords, and 

 as these deep channels could not have been worn by the modern alluvia^ or by existing forces, 

 and as they have been produced since the tertiary era, the evWence of their production during the 

 boulder period is pretty satisfactory. The absence of these two features — drift deposit and 

 fiords — in the State of California, is an interesting illustration of the connection between 

 geography and geology. 



o Geology U. S. Expl. Exp., p. 075. 



