I 92 I. X". ri. THE STRANDFLAT AND ISOSTASV. I 59 



Another feature is also of interest in this connection. Both plateaus 

 are dissected by shallow submerged bays and channels along their south- 

 eastern sides, while there are hardly any such formations along their outer 

 north-western sides. These channels generally indenting the plateaus ir 

 northerly or north-westerly directions may be 15 to 17 metres deep and 

 in some places even deeper than 20 metres. The emerged land is to some 

 extent indented in the same manner. The island Rostoi has several similar 

 narrow bays on its southern and south-eastern side. But it is especially 

 conspicuous on A'æroi. The north-western coast of this island is high 

 and steep and is not indented while its whole south-eastern coast is in- 

 dented by two or three cirque-like bays, which Th. \ ogt assumes to be 

 formed chiefly by marine erosion. I think he is right, but it is the shore 

 erosion bv frost and not the wave erosion which has been of chief im- 

 portance, the same as on Træna (see p. 145). I also consider it to be 

 probable that these bays may originally have been more or less cirques 

 formed by local glacial erosion. 



But if the marine ersosion (i. c. the shore erosion) has formed these 

 bays and channels along the south-eastern sides of the plateaus, why has 

 it not produced similar formations along their north-western sides and 

 why is not, for instance, the north-western coast of \'aeroi indented? 

 It might be answered that on the latter side the marine erosion has been 

 so vigorous that it has cut back the coast sufficiently tc obliterate these 

 formations, but this answer would hardly be satisfactory, first, because 

 an increased marine erosion might rather be expected to increase the bays 

 if they are partly formed by it, and secondly, because it might at any rate 

 be expected that traces of these bays and channels should occur on the 

 submerged strandfiat outside the coast. This strandfiat is, however, very 

 level especially on the north-western sides of the plateaus, and stands 

 nearer sea-level there than on their south-eastern sides. 



It might be assumed that these channels and bays have to some extent 

 been sculptured by local glaciers on these plateaus, at an earlier time 

 before the land was so much cut back by marine denudation, and the 

 level submerged strandfiat, especially on the north-western sides of the 

 plateaus, may tlien be expected to have been formed by shore erosion 

 during later periods, and to have become so perfectly even because the 

 land was not previously as much dissected in those inner areas. In that 

 case we might, however, expect to find traces of similar submerged 

 channels along the outer north-western slope of the plateaus, but this is 

 not the case, and the edges are well defined near the side slopes of the 

 plateaus in these regions, and are near sea-level. 



E^ven if we could assume that because of the meteorological con- 

 ditions, the glaciers especially occurred on the south-eastern sides of the 

 plateaus, this could hardly give a satisfactory explanation. 



