128 KRIirrjOK NANSFN. 



()ulsiilc tin- \ ikten i^lainls, to llic soulli, west, aiifl nortliwest, there 

 is a suI)nK'rj4X'fl platfcn'in, kj to 17 kiloniclrcs broarl, with a pcrfectlv 

 Ik'w iMcriiijj;" nunihcr of low isUts, skerries, aiul slioals. The j^'^reat majority 

 of the thousauils of shoals ami sunken rocks on this platforni is very 

 nearly at sca-le\'el or onl\ a few metres below it. 



]W far the i^reater i)art of this suhtnerjj^ed {>latform has depths of 

 less than 15 metres below sea-level, and its general level is less than 

 10 metres below the water. It forms a fairly v\v\\ aiir] horizontal plane 

 extending over many kilometres. It is traversed by many narrow chan- 

 nels, sometimes 50 to too metres deep, and at its outer borrjer the sea- 

 bottom falls abru])tly towards depths of 150 tf) 200 metres of the sea 

 outside. 



The edges of the {)latform along the traversing channels as well as 

 along its outer borrler are as a rule very sharply defined at depths of 

 less than 10 metres. 



It is the same kind of platform as those extending northwest of 

 Smolen, and north of Froia, with a general horizontal level at only some 

 few metres below sea-level and sharply defined edges along the outer 

 borders as well as along the many traversing channels. 



It seems obvious that after these channels and depressions had first 

 been formed, the initial projecting peninsulas and islands have been 

 truncated at a level some few metres below present sea-level, to form these 

 very even horizontal planes, which may have been still more even at first 

 before they had been exposed to the subsequent erosion of glaciers. 



Along the coast of Hclgeland to the north, similar platforms have 

 a still wider extent, and when describing that coast we shall return to 

 the question of their formation. 



