VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF NORWAY. 237 



Norway is essentially a mountainous country, in 

 which the mountains form the most prominent feature, 

 whilst the valleys or lowlands occupy but a subordinate 

 part. 



The loftiest ranges are to be found between lat. 60 

 and lat. 62, in which there are peaks from 8,000 to 

 9,000 feet above the level of the sea. 



Nothing can exceed the desolate wildness of these 

 regions, the native home of the wild reindeer, to which 

 the Cladonia rangiferina and other lichens impart 

 a sombre and yellowish tint, adding not a little to the 

 depressing uniformity of the landscape. It is in this 

 part that most of the glaciers are found. 



In the south-eastern parts of the country the direc- 

 tion of the valleys is from north to south ; but on the 

 western coast the sea makes deep indentations into the 

 interior from west to east, forming the fjords or firths. 



They are often of considerable length ; e.g., the Sogne 

 Fjord is not less than twenty-two geographical miles 

 from its mouth to the extremity of its innermost arm. 



Sometimes they are, BO to speak, narrow fissures in 

 the rocky mass, the sides of which rise perpendicularly 

 from the sea, and never permit the full light of day to 

 penetrate to their bottom, as in Lyse Fjord in By- 

 fylke, and Sor Fjord in Hardanger; and sometimes, 

 though less frequently, they form capacious basins 

 as the Throndhjem Fjord, the sloping and even sides of 



