Fig. I. Strandllat at Lille Molla (535 metres high, to the right) and Skråven (281 metres, 

 to the left), south side of Lofoten. (July 2nd, 19 12.) 



. INTRODUCTION. 



The Norwegian "strandfiat" extends as a low flat foreland, and an 

 often broad belt of thousands of low islands, skerries, and rocks (the 

 ■"Skjærgård") in front of the high, mountainous land, along the wes1 

 and north-west coast of Norway, from Lindesness to Finmarken. It is 

 backed by the escarpment of the mountains which often ascend abruptly 

 from the inner margin of the strandfiat to altitudes of hundreds of metres. 



The width of this strandfiat may vary much, from a few k'lometres 

 in some regions to 60 kilometres (37 miles) in the region of Hitteren and 

 Frøia, and 46 to 50 kilometres (29 to 31 miles) in Helgeland (region of 

 Hæroi, Donna, and Træna). 



The degree of development of the strandfiat may also vary a great 

 deal. Along great parts of the coast it is extremely conspicuous and 

 sharply defined, but in other regions it is less striking, and in some places 

 it may even be difficult to trace out or to distinguish from the low hills 

 of the land inside. 



Where it is well developed, its characteristic features are: (i) the 

 remarkably horizontal plane formed by the flat summits of its thousands 

 of low skerries, islets, and peninsulas, rising to a certain low height above 

 the sea, looking at a distance as if they had been cut off and planed down 

 to this level along a ruler. (2j The horizontal and sharply defined in- 

 cision which this plane forms in the mountain side of the land, often 

 oversteepened and rising abruptly from the inner margin of the plane. 



Fig. 2. Strandflat on Arsteinen, east of entrance to Raftsund, Lofoten. (July 2nd, 1912.) 

 Vid.-Selsk. Skrifter. I. M.-X. Kl. 1921. No. 11. 1 



