240 SPORT IN NORWAY. 
be the case were they pointed or peaked. In the 
winter months, therefore, the snow is heaped up in 
immense masses on the high plateaux, which in the 
summer are again deluged with rain. Consequently, 
when, after the long winter, the mild winds and rains of 
the early summer ensue, an enormous mass of water is 
collected above, which naturally seeks an outlet. But 
owing to the flat and uniform formation of these 
plateaux, an outlet is not so easy to find, and the 
valleys, moreover, are narrow, and situated at long 
distances from each other. The result, therefore, may 
be readily imagined that each valley receives enormous 
quantities of water from these immense fjeld tracts 
above. 
This circumstance naturally exercises a great in- 
fluence on the mass of water in the rivers, causing 
them to rise rapidly and overflow their banks about the 
beginning of June. 
Before dismissing this subject, it may bewell to 
mention another phenomenon which is not unfrequent 
in Norway, 7. ¢., the green colour of the water in some 
of the rivers. An instance of this is especially notice- 
able in Gudbrandsdal, where the Otta Ely joins the 
Laagen. The water of the former is of a peculiar sea- 
green colour, and it is very easy to distinguish the 
water of either river from the other, even for some 
tolerable distance after their junction. The whole mass 
