RIVERS. 85 



011 the fjelds than in the valleys of the interior. The 

 height of the mountain plateau is such as to be covered 

 more or less with snow during two-thirds of the year or 

 more; during the period the rivers and cascades are, 

 comparatively in many cases, absolutely dry. The vast 

 accumulations of autumn, winter, and spring, are to be 

 thawed during the almost constant warmth of the long 

 summer days. In this season alone the interior of Norway 

 is usually visited, and we see the result in the amount of 

 drainage concentrated into that brief season. In the Alps, 

 no doubt, a similar cause is active, but the comparative 

 want of cascades is explained by the absolute want of 

 table lands, and the infinitely ramified character of the 

 valleys. In the Pyrenees, which have a still more ridge- 

 like character than the Alps, the cascades are more 

 numerous, but yet far more scanty.' 



By Dr Broch it is reported in regard to the rivers of 

 Norway I give a free, but substantially correct transla- 

 tion of his statements : 



' From the position of the mountains the large rivers can 

 only flow from north to south, or south to north. Affluents 

 and small riveis on the west coast alone flow in a different 

 direction. All the rivers of south Norway flow through a 

 chain of lakes generally of considerable size, and almost 

 always elongated in the direction of the river's course. 

 They are often so narrow that they may be considered 

 only expansions of the rivers where their depth, which is 

 often very considerable, does not impart to them the 

 character of lakes. These Jakes form reservoirs which 

 receive and modulate the flow of the rivers, and with a 

 view to increase this effect there has been established 

 moveable dykes at the embrochure of some lakes. 



* The rivers of Norway experience a pretty regular flood, 

 produced in the end of May and in June by the melting 

 of snow in the valleys and on the elevated plateaux. The 

 magnitude of this flood is very variable and depends not 

 only~on the quantities of snow which may have fallen in 



