NOTES ON THE FORESTS OP NORWAY. 461 



on comparatively small areas, which are sheltered from sea-winds. 

 More extensive and valuable forests occur, however, at the heads 

 of the fjords and in the valleys leading down to them. Here the 

 pine is the principal tree on the lower ground, while birch succeeds 

 it at higher elevations. 



3. The Inland Region. — In the eastern and southern parts of 

 the country, conifers (pine and spruce) cover the mountain slopes 

 from the margin of the cultivation in the valleys up to an altitude 

 of about 2600 feet, where they are replaced by birch (B. verrucosa 

 or B. odorata), which also often occurs as a forest tree on the 

 outskirts of cultivation and pasture, below the belt of conifers. 

 These last-named species in their turn give way to the dwarf 

 birch (B. nana) and the willow, at altitudes of from 3200 to 3600 

 feet above sea-level. 



Seeding. 



Forest trees in Norway produce mature seed at an earlier age 

 than they do in more southern countries. Seed of pine and 

 of spruce is relatively small and light, this characteristic being 

 more marked in higher than in lower latitudes; but it is said 

 to produce plants of a particularly hardy nature. The germinating 

 power of the seed is also very high ; it often runs to over 90 per 

 cent, of the whole sample. Natural reproduction and development 

 are more favourable than might be expected in a mountainous 

 country extending considerably north of the Arctic circle. Seed- 

 years occur at intervals of from three to five years ; the intervals 

 being shorter in the south and longer in the north. 



Rate of Growth and Dimensions. 



In a country extending over some thirteen degrees of latitude, with 

 considerable changes of elevation, it is to be expected that the rate 

 of growth and the dimensions attained would vary greatly. In 

 southern Norway the pine, when from seventy-five to one hundred 

 years old, will, as a rule, yield logs from 23 to 25 feet in length, 

 and from 9 to 10 inches in diameter at the smaller end. The 

 spruce will yield logs of similar dimensions in from seventy to 

 eighty years. But taking the country as a whole, the felling-age 

 may be put at one hundred and fifty years for pine, and at one 

 hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty years for spruce ; and 

 in the more mountainous and more northerly districts a period of 

 fifty years may be added to these ages. The height of conifers 



