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NOTES ON A SUMMER TOUR IN NORWAY. 71 
and fjord, snowfield and glacier, deep valley and rushing torrent, all 
of which combine to form one magnificent picture, unapproached 
for grandeur or variety by the scenery of any other country in the 
world. 
i Although I shall have nothing which is absolutely new to lay 
before you, yet many of the facts upon which my statements will 
be based are not readily accessible, and at present scarcely form a 
part of our general stock of knowledge, for the simple reason that 
no one has taken the trouble to gather them together out of the 
numerous books and papers in which they lie hid, and bring them 
to a focus. TI shall have occasion to show that some of the so- 
called facts in published descriptions of the physiography of 
Scandinavia, even occasionally in works of acknowledged repute, 
are very erroneous and misleading, one writer contenting himself 
with copying from another without taking the trouble to verify the 
facts for himself. 
This great peninsula of Scandinavia extends through 16 degrees 
of latitude, six of which are within the Arctic Circle. Both its 
eastern and western coast lines are very tortuous, but the sinuosi- 
ties of the western side far exceed in complexity and magnitude 
those of the eastern. 
The eastern, or Swedish, side presents, as a rule, a succession of 
low shores and cliffs of no great height, and in the upper part of 
the Gulf of Bothnia even great alluvial deposits, which have been 
brought down by the rivers from the mountains. The western, or 
Norwegian, side of the peninsula affords a great contrast to this, 
in possessing a very rocky and precipitous coast, especially 
towards the north; a coast, also, which is indented by narrow 
winding rock-bound inlets, or fjords, which penetrate in some 
cases as much as 80 to roo miles inland. For very long distances 
“the mainland does not come into direct contact with the sea, 
girdled as it is by a belt of islands,” which form the so-called 
skjaergaard, or “fence of skerries,”’ constituting the outer coast. 
The islands which form this skjaergaard are extremely numerous, 
and vary in size from many square miles in area to tiny rocks 
which just hold their heads above water. 
