306 



FIRST YEAR SCIENCE 



A NORWAY FIORD. 



Showing large vessels anchored near the 

 shore. 



the harvest of the land. The distance along the coast be- 

 tween two points is much longer than the straight line dis- 



tance over the sea. The 



boat, not the wagon, 

 becomes the important 

 vehicle of travel. Many 

 submerged coasts, such 

 as those of Maine, 

 Alaska and Norway, 

 have been modified by 

 ice action. Their val- 

 leys have been smoothed 

 and rounded. 



In Norway the deep 

 fiords conduct the sea 

 from the island-studded 



coast far into the interior. Their sides rise steeply, 

 sometimes for several thousand feet from the water's 

 edge and descend so steeply below it that large vessels 

 can be moored close to 

 the shore. Generally 

 there is not sufficient 

 level land along the 

 sides of the fiord for 

 building roads. The 

 villages are usually sit- 

 uated where a side 

 stream has built a little 

 delta, or at the heads of 

 the fiords where the 

 unsubmerged portion of 

 the valley begins. 



These U-shaped valleys with their small streams extend 

 back to the interior uplands, sometimes blocked toward 



A NORWAY VILLAGE. 

 At the head of a fiord. 



