T56 FRIDTJOF NANSKN. M.-N. Kl. 



Fig. 121. .Strandtlal rut in granite and syenite at Tranoi Lighthouse on Hamaroi, near 

 tile inner end of Vest Fjord. (Sept. 8, 1912). 



of Folia Fjord, ft is chiefly built up of j^niciss [Rckstarl, 19 19. \>. 27 and 

 mapl. It has a threat many scattered islands, skerries, and sunken rock.s. 

 and its submerged surface slopes outwards with no .sharply marked edge. 



Lofoten and Vesterålen. 



The islands of Lofoten ar.d \>sterålen are to a great extent built up 

 of very resistant igneous rocks: gabbro-monzonites, granites, &c. And 

 as the initial land was high the development (jf the strandfiat must have 

 been a very slow process in this region in spite of the severe northern 

 climate and the exposed situation of tlie coasts out to sea. 



The strandfiat is therefore naturally narrow along the coasts of 

 Lofoten and Vesterålen, but in many places it is very conspicuous and 

 sharply marked at the foot of the high steep mountains (cf. Figs, i and 2), 

 fre(|uently forming deep horizontal incisions in the mountain sides, with 

 precipitous rock walls or cliffs behind them. 



Descriptions of the strandfiat of this region have been given by 

 J. H. L. Vogt [1907] and Th. \'ogt [1912] and also by Ahlmann [1919] 

 who, however, holds the view that whilst in some places like Værøi its 

 plane is, at least ]~)artly. formed by wa\e erosion, it is along the rest of 

 the coast, what he calls the "distal base-levelled plain". 



Th. Vogt gives [1910, PI. II and III] some very illustrative photo- 

 graphs of the strandfiat at Gaukværoi and ITasseloi in A'esterålen. which 

 seem to me to demonstrate clearlv how utterly impossible it is that these 

 planes extending horizontally to the foot of the steep mountains can have 

 been formed solely by subaërial denudation (see also Fig. i of this 

 treatise). 



The previous writers have given no accurate heights of the emerged 

 strandfiat of Lofoten and Vesterålen, based upon actual measurements 

 by levelling, nor has the present writer had an opportunity of measuring 

 its height. J. H. L. Vogt [1907, p. 20], obviously basing his estimate 

 on the official maps ("Gradavdelingskarter" in scale i : 100,000), says 

 that the inner edge of the strandfiat in Lofoten lies in numerous profiles 



