IKIDTJOK SASHES. M.-X. Kl. 



Tlierc seems, liowcvcr, lo he no sufficienlly wcij^Hity reason for such 

 a clian/^e of name, e\en if there lia'l been some prohahilit}' in favour of 

 ,'\.'s tlieor\' of the i^cnelic origin of the stranilflat. which is not the case 

 according to the view of the present writer. 



A.'s theory is not so revolutionary as he seems to tliink. Some 

 previous writers, especially A. (1. Høgbom [1913] and the present writer 

 [1904, 1905], had suggested that the strandfiat had been formed chiefly 

 by the conjoint action of subaërial denudation and marine denudation, 

 and also to some extent glacial erosion. By far the greater part of the 

 denuding work was suppcjsed to have been accomplished by subaërial 

 denudation, while the marine denudation was supposed to have finally 

 planed off the low coastal zone of islands and peninsulas, and had thus 

 developed that nearly horizontal plane of the strandfiat which is so very- 

 conspicuous in many regions of the coast. Now A. postulates that this 

 finishing planing by the marine denudation is not necessary, as the sub- 

 aërial denudation alone may have accomplished the whole work. His 

 evidences are, however, hardly convincing, as we shall see. 



Like most geomorphologists A. considers marine denudation to be 

 solely due to wave erosion, and as, according to his view, the w'aves can- 

 not possibl}^ cut very broad and nearly horizontal plains along an open 

 undissected coast, nor can have much erosive fores along the protected 

 shores in narrow sounds, inlets, and fjords, a strandfiat or "coastal plain" 

 cannot be formed by marine denudation. 



His argument is that the formation of a strandfiat in this manner 

 would be such an extremely slow process, that, during the long time 

 required, the coast land would be planed down to base level by subaërial 

 denudation. He therefore considers it to be probable that, what is called 

 the strandfiat, has been formed in the latter manner, during preglacial 

 time before the coast had been dissected by the many deep fjords and 

 channels, deepened during the glacial periods, and now traversing this 

 plain. 



Already on this point A. seems to come into a serious conflict with 

 himself, in as much as, in the last part of his treatise [1919, pp. 237 — 239], 

 he describes very broad and nearly horizontal plains in northern Norway, 

 in the regions of Vaeroi, Røst, and probably Træna, which he thinks are 

 "unmistakable results" of marine denudation (i. e. wave erosion). On 

 Væroi, these plains are cut as much as two or three kilometres landwards, 

 into the mountain side, forming cirques one kilometre and a half broad. 



He says [19 19, p. 239] that on Rost "marine abrasion and other 

 atmospheric agencies of destruction have broken down all land so that 

 only isolated parts survive". He thinks that this "took place during the 

 last Ice Age outside the inland ice. At that time too the subaërial destruc- 

 tive agencies in the regions, situated just outside the inland ice, were 

 undoubtedly extraordinarily powerful. The land area was rapidly broken 



