98 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 



tion is given, both in forest legislation and in forest 

 administration, to the conservation of forests on mountain 

 tops as a means of giving shelter to lower-lying lands to 

 leeward, and as a means of preventing the formation of 

 mountain torrents. I have no reason to suppose that the 

 subject commands like attention in Norway. But meteoro- 

 logical observations of storms and prevalent winds, and of 

 atmospheric pressure are not awanting, and in view of the 

 relation of winds to forests, I cite some of these reported 

 by Dr Broch. 



Thunder storms and storms of rain are comparatively 

 rare in Norway. They principally occur in the summer 

 months. The winter storms fall almost exclusively on the 

 west coast, from the Naze to Andenaes, in Vestrealen ; 

 they come in heavy gales from the west. 



The thunder storms come as a general rule with wind 

 from the south and the south-west, of a high temperature, 

 and loaded with aqueous vapour. They proceed often in 

 a regular course across the country, and sometimes advance 

 with a great extent of breadth, for example, from the Naze 

 to Vest fiord. Their mean rate of advance is 40 kilometres 

 per hour, in a direction from south-west to north-east. 

 The greater part of them are accompanied by great whirl- 

 winds along the south border. A portion of the storms 

 are occasioned by the great heats which are produced in 

 the interior of the country. These are amongst the least 

 violent. 



The storms of Norway are everywhere greater and more 

 frequent on the coast than in the interior. In the eastern 

 part of the country, where they only appear in summer, 

 there may be two or perhaps three in a year. They are 

 also of like frequency in the interior, especially on the 

 north part of Lake Miosen, as they are on the coast. It 

 is on the shore, from the Naze to the Sogne fiord, that 

 they are of greatest frequency in Norway ; six or seven 

 have been seen in the course of a year. From the Sogne 

 fiord to the Drontheim fiord they are comparatively rare. 

 They are more frequent in the region which extends from 



