1/8 SEA AND LAND 



shore-line, but it owes its origin to a general character which 

 is stamped upon a large part of the lands that have been 

 eroded by glacial action. It is also clear that the institution 

 of fiords does not depend upon such carving of the land as 

 may be brought about by ordinar)- river action. If we com- 

 pare the character of the rocks in the peninsulas of Spain and 

 Scandinavia we iind that the strata of the two regions appar- 

 ently do not differ from each other in any essential way, at 

 least as regards their resistance to the erosion effected by 

 rain-water ; but th(! northern of these two areas everywhere 

 exhibits a horded coast-line while the shore of the more south- 

 ern land is as characteristically exempt from this peculiar 

 topography. In the same way, on the Western coasts of North 

 and South America the extreme northern and southern parts 

 of its extent are extensively fiorded, while the intermediate 

 section from the mouth of the Columbia River to Valparaiso 

 forms one of the least indented shore-lines in the world. 



Not only are fiords limited to glaciated areas, but the 

 general topography upon the existence of which their pres- 

 ence depends can, so far as we know, be created only by a 

 glacial action. As we have just noted, it is characteristic of 

 well-developed fiords to have a basin- or bowl-like character 

 in the upper part of a reentrant, and an elevation or sill 

 between this depression and the sea. Now it is a well-known 

 fact that in glaciated countries we always find more or less 

 numerous lakes having essentially the same shape as the fiord 

 basins ; deep depressions, rock-walled on every side, are 

 among the most familiar results of extensive glacial w^earing. 

 The eastern portion of North America abounds in such 

 depressions, and they are extensively developed in the valleys 

 of Switzerland, where we know by indisputable evidence that 



