MOUNTAINS AND FJELDS. 125 



All of this, which is situated between 600 metres and 1000 

 metres, say 3,500 feet, is still to a great extent, especially on 

 the east side and in the lower half, covered with coniferous 

 trees, Pinus obies and P. sylvestris. In the higher portion 

 of this zone the conifers give place to the birch, Betula 

 glutinosa, which, especially in the slopes facing the south, 

 and in places sheltered against the north winds, attain an 

 elevation considerably above 1000 metres, say 3,500 feet, 

 above the sea level. The juniper, Juniperus commum's, 

 rises higher on dry land ; and at a still greater elevation 

 are found in moist places smaller species of willows, 

 Sattces, and the dwarf birch, Betula nana. They attain in 

 sheltered places an altitude of 1500 metres, 5000 feet. 

 Higher still vegetation is represented by different grasses, 

 and carices, and sedges, beyond that by mosses, and finally 

 by lichens which grow upon the bare rock. 



It may further be remarked that the level surface 

 of the mountain plateau, where they are not wooded 

 and, as has been stated, the forests prevail over a portion of 

 the zone situated between 600 and 1000 metres in altitude 

 -consist in part of naked rock covered only with mosses 

 and heath, in part of marshes to which marsh berries in 

 some places give it a colouring, in part of bogs which yield 

 to the foot, and in part of herbaceous turf and verdant 

 flower-decked slopes. On other parts we meet with 

 ancient moraines composed now of a soft and deceptive clay 

 covered with schistose fragments, in which the incautious 

 traveller may sink to the knees. In another part are pro- 

 jections ot rock, bare, or covered with great heaps of stones, 

 or, it may be, even to the end of summer, with large and 

 small sheets of snow. Nave's and glaciers appear in 

 many places, and cover sometimes a continuous bed of 

 some hundred square kilometres, say of hundreds of 

 square miles. Thus is it in the region comprised between 

 the Sogne fiord and the Nord fiord, in the prefecture of 

 Nordre-Bergenhus, and in that of the Folgefonn to the 

 south-east of the Hardanger fiord, in the prefecture of 

 Soendore-Bergenhus. The highest part, the most wild, 



