MECHANICAL ACTION OF GLACIERS. 141 



snow and the ice, run down on every side. In the moun- 

 tains above are the Langedal and the Bjorne glaciers, 

 rising to 4,500 and 4,780 feet above the sea ; a little 

 farther north, on the west side, are the Svaere and the 

 Vetle fiords, between mountains, the highest of which, the 

 Oatneskri, rises 5000 feet nearly a mile, which is 1,760 

 yards, or 5,280 feet. At the end of the Vetle fiord there 

 is a road of a few miles, leading to the great ice-field of 

 Justedalfonn. As you bail farther inland, still higher 

 mountains loom up on both sides of the fiord the Mels- 

 nipa, 5,620 feet ; the Gunvords and Stendale glaciers, 

 5,200 feet. The water is of a peculiar opaque light green, 

 showing the effect of the numerous streams from the ice. 

 Three valleys diverge from the lowlands at the end of 

 this fiord. The first, the Suphelle, is a long narrow 

 ravine, enclosed between rugged mountains; its glacier, 

 about four miles from the sea, is fed from the side of 

 another with which it has no direct communication, the 

 masses of ice falling from a height of between two or 

 three thousand feet. . . . In the year 1868 a large 

 number of avalanches occurred in different parts of the 

 country, occasioning loss of life and property. On the 

 Fjaerland, on the west side, one descended of such a size 

 that it formed a bridge over the fiord at that point 5000 

 feet [nearly a mile] wide upon which the people crossed. 

 If I had not been told this by several trustworthy persons, 

 I would not have believed it, so incredible does it appear. 



'Leaving the Fjaerland, and again ascending the Sogne 

 fiord, the scenery becomes more cheerful woods, fields, 

 meadows, and hamlets, are far more numerous : at the base 

 of the mountains the woods crowning even some of the 

 lower hills. Here is the hamlet of Fejos, while the Fres- 

 vik snow-field, rising 5000 feet, towers over all. 

 Two streams from the Grindsdal and Henjumdal two 

 valleys a few miles apart, both formed by the Gunford 

 glacier, 5000 feet above the sea empty into the sea here, 

 and give water-power to numerous grist-mills. 



' A few miles farther up on the northern shore is the 



