364 Andr. Lundager 



(+ 5.6, + 11.1 and + 3.0, at 8, 2 and 9 o'clock respectively) is 19.7°. 

 At 1 p. m. the black-bulb thermometer recorded + 42.0°. 



The gnats occur to a degree that is most tiresome, though they 

 are not nearly as numerous as in the corresponding swampy districts 

 on the west coast. 



In spite of the heat the summer must be said to have finished 

 by the end of this month ; all plant-life had been long before on 

 the descent and even the late-flowering species have reached their 

 last stage of development — fruit-setting. The high temperature during 

 the day does not suffice to call forth and continue the development 

 of those species and individuals which perhaps appear first at this 

 time from beneath the melting snowdrifts. From the beginning 

 of August we have to reckon with a fairly distinct day-period; 

 already in the night between August the 4th and the 6th the 

 thermometer went down to — 2.0°. Not till the 23rd did we get a 

 negative day-temperature, but three days later we had the first 24 

 hours of continuous frost. 



There is plenty of precipitation during the month; 16.1 mm. 

 of which half fell on the 12th. 



The melting of the snow reached its maximum, with the largest 

 bulk of water in Vester Elven, on August 3rd. 



With the setting-in of frost the cycle of the vegetation is virtually 

 at an end for this year. Only here and there we find — in shelter 

 and under the influence of the sun's heat in the middle of the day — 

 a few Ranunculi, Saxifragœ and other hardy plants in bloom ; but 

 I am under the firm impression that the period of growth was 

 considerably longer in 1906. On the other hand in 1907 more snow 

 seems to have melted than the year before. As far as can be 

 judged more snow was lying on the mountains then than there is 

 now lying at the same time of the year. 



The appearance of the old snowdrifts also indicates this. The 

 more the snow melts away the darker become the surface-layers ' 

 which mark the pauses between the different snowfalls of unequal 

 thickness which, in the course of the winter, build up the snowdrift 

 (Fig. 5). And that layer will be darkest which is the last to be melted 

 during a summer period, especially if it lies deeper than the melting- 

 level of one or more previous years. For every time the storms, in 

 the course of the winter, have brought the snow to rest in a drift, 

 loose material is brought thither from the fields above. This material 

 continues to cover the snow in layers and helps, very much, to 

 hasten the melting because of its dark colour. 



Such a stratification can be seen in profile at lakes and other 

 places where the drifts are undercut by water so that the outer 



