W FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 



snow field, of Svartis, between Ran en and Salten, plays 

 also there an important part in producing like results. 

 Further to the north the temperature is so low that the 

 quantity of rain falling there can never equal that of 

 Southern Norway ; nevertheless, the condensation of 

 vapour occurring there with great frequency, the number 

 of rainy days is considerable. On the coasts from the 

 Romsdal to the Skudesnaes, and at Christiansand, the 

 annual rainfall measures about a metre or 40 inches, while 

 at Tromso and at Christiania it is only about a half of 

 that; and on the mountains of the Dovrefjeld it is only 

 about a third of that quantity. 



When studied in connection with forestry, the distribu- 

 tion of the rainfall, both in time and in space, demands 

 attention. In a volume entitled Forests and Moisture ; or, 

 Effects of Forests on Humidity of Climate* I have shown 

 that while the geographical distribution of the rainfall has 

 to some extent determined the distribution of forests, one 

 effect of forests, when created, has been to affect the local 

 distribution of rain in time and quantity, and in space. In 

 a well- wooded land the rainfall may be found to be diffused 

 in showers over a great part of the year ; while in a land 

 otherwise under similar conditions, but devoid of forests 

 and other vegetation, the rain falls only at distant inter- 

 vals months or years apart and falls in torrents. And 

 again, in the former case, the rainfall may be generally 

 diffused over the whole area of the district ; in the latter 

 it may fall in torrents here and torrents there, leaving 

 extensive regions unvisited by rain for long. Numerous 



* Forests and Moisture ; or, Effects of Forests on Humidity of Climate. In which 

 are given details of phenomena of vegetation on which the meteorological effects of 

 forests affecting the humidity of climate depend, of the effects of forests on the humi- 

 dity of the atmosphere, on the humidity of the ground, on marshes, on the moisture of 

 a wide expanse of country, on the local rainfall, and on rivers, and of the correspond- 

 ence between the distribution of the rainfall and of forests, the measure of corres- 

 pondence between the distribution of the rainfall and that of forests, the distribution 

 of the rainfall dependent on geographical position, determined by the contour of a 

 country, the distribution of forests affected by the distribution of the rainfall, and 

 the local effects of forests on the distribution of the rainfall within the forest district. 

 Edinburgh : Oliver <fc Boyd. London : Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. 1877. 



