84 FORESTRY OF NORWAtf. 



series of broken falls, spreading' laterally as it descends, 

 and ri vetting the attention for a long while together in 

 endeavouring to trace its subtile ramifications. The 

 sound is rather a murmur than a roar, so divided are the 

 streams, and so numerous the shelves of rock tipped with 

 foam ; whilst a luxuriant vegetation of birch and alder 

 overarches the whole, instead of being repelled by the 

 wild tempest of air which accompanies the greater 

 cataract. At other times single threads of snow-white 

 water stretch down a steep of 2000 feet or more, connect- 

 ing the ^ eld above and valley below ; they look so slender 

 that we wonder at their absolute uniformity and perfect 

 whiteness throughout so great a space never dissipated 

 in air, never disappearing under debris ; but on approach- 

 ing these seeming threads we are astonished at their 

 volume, which is usually such as completely to stop the 

 communication from bank to bank. 



' The source of this astonishing profusion of water is to 

 be found in the peculiar disposition of the surface of the 

 country. The mountains are wide and flat, the valleys 

 are deep and far apart. The surfaces of the former receive 

 and collect the rain, which is then drained into the narrow 

 channels of the latter ; and as the valleys ramify little, but 

 usually pursue single lines, and are wholly disconnected 

 from the fjelds by precipitous slopes, it follows that the 

 single rivers which water those valleys represent the 

 drainage of vast areas, and are supplied principally by 

 streamlets which, having run long courses over the fjelds, 

 are at last precipitated into ravines in the form of cas- 

 cades. The system might be represented in a homely 

 way by great blocks of houses in an old-fashioned town, 

 the roofs of which collect and transmit the rain-water by 

 means of communicating gutters, until, on reaching the 

 street, the whole falls by means of open water-spouts, 

 flooding the waterways below. 



' But there is also another reason for this striking abun- 

 dance of water. The fall of rain is large, if not excessive, 

 over a great part of Norway. It is also, no doubt, greater 



