MECHANICAL ACTION OF GLACIERS. 155 



to April 1827 (p. 120), describing certain phenomena near 

 the embouchure of the Sogne fiord, says : ' On this rock 

 there seemed to me to be proofs of the powerful operation 

 of ice. I found that the precipices on the side of the moun- 

 tain next the sound were several [hundred ?] feet in height, 

 and perfectly perpendicular, and though they were composed 

 of boulders cemented together, they were perfectly even 

 and smooth. If these precipices had been the effect of 

 rents, attended with successive masses tumbling down, 

 then the boulders adjoining the rent must have been found 

 adhering, sometimes to the one and sometimes to the 

 other of the separated masses (those which have fallen 

 into the sea are no more to be seen), and in that case the 

 boulders left on one mass must have left a mark of them- 

 selves in the corresponding one. This, however, was by 

 no means the case, as the rock which remained was per- 

 fectly smooth, and had the appearance as if these boulders 

 had been cut across with a sharp knife. I can explain 

 this phenomenon in no other way than by supposing that 

 large masses of ice, pressing through the sound, have cut 

 these precipices lying parallel in the direction of the 

 sound/ 



Forbes, citing this statement, shows that the reference 

 is to the action of glaciers, and not to that of floating ice. 



Principal Forbes, who had gone to Norway to study the 

 glaciers of that country, writing of the locality below what 

 has just been described, says : ' In the course of the fore- 

 noon we passed the opening on the great Sogne fiord, the 

 most ramified in Norway, stretching landward not less 

 than 110 English miles, to the head of the Lyster fiord, 

 one of its farthest tributaries. Having heard much of the 

 surprising and gloomy cliffs of the Sogne fiord, I was dis- 

 appointed to find its entrance tame, undulating, and with- 

 out much interest, whilst the higher mountains were too 

 remote, or too much concealed by the intermediate hills, 

 to produce a favourable effect. The character of the rocks 

 and islets of the fiord was, however, worthy of notice, 



