240 SPORT IN NORWAY. 



be the case were they pointed or peaked. In the 

 winter months, therefore, the snow is heaped up in 

 immense masses on the high plateaux, which in the 

 summer are again deluged with rain. Consequently, 

 when, after the long winter, the mild winds and rains of 

 the early summer ensue, an enormous mass of water is 

 collected above, which naturally seeks an outlet. But 

 owing to the flat and uniform formation of these 

 plateaux, an outlet is not so easy to find, and the 

 valleys, moreover, are narrow, and situated at long 

 distances from each other. The result, therefore, may 

 be readily imagined that each valley receives enormous 

 quantities of water from these immense fjeld tracts 

 above. 



This circumstance naturally exercises a great in- 

 fluence on the mass of water in the rivers, causing 

 them to rise rapidly and overflow their banks about the 

 beginning of June. 



Before dismissing this subject, it may be well to 

 mention another phenomenon which is not unfrequent 

 in Norway, i. e., the green colour of the water in some 

 of the rivers. An instance of this is especially notice- 

 able in Gudbrandsdal, where the Otta Elv joins the 

 Laagen. The water of the former is of a peculiar sea- 

 green colour, and it is very easy to distinguish the 

 water of either river from the other, even for some' 

 tolerable distance after their junction. The whole mass 



