1 92 1. No. 1 1. 



THF. STRANDFLAT AND ISOSTASV, 



67 



totographic vie^v of Rutletangene and islands outside. lAug. 11. igri). 



a the sea west of the coast between Rautingen and Kversoi, see Figs. 21,52, & 46. ( Julv 27, 191 ii. 



fjord has been excavated later. These benches should consequently be of 

 preglacial origin. Reusch also points out that the strandfiat along the 

 coast outside the fjord may perhaps have been formed at the same time 

 as this valley system. 



Reusch's explanation of the origin of these benches seems to me im- 

 probable for several reasons. Firstly it is hardly credible that these 

 benches and flat rocky points on the sides of the fjord could possibly 

 have survived the violent glacial erosion by which the fjord was excavated 

 to its present depths, 600 or 800 metres deeper. 



Secondly if the strandfiat along the coast outside the fjord was 

 formed simultanuously with the initial Hardanger valley system, the floor 

 in the inner part of that valley — in the inner part of the present fjord 

 region, in Sorf jord — must certainly have been considerably higher than 

 the sea-level indicated by the strandfiat along the coast outside. But the 

 level of the benches and rocky points along the sides of the inner Hard- 

 anger Fjord is no higher than the strandfiat of the outer coast, and the 

 floor of the initial valley must obviously have been lower along its middle 

 than now indicated by these benches along its sides. In Sogne Fjord 

 we found that the flat rocky points had even a somewhat lower height 



