156 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 



though far from picturesque. They present to an exces- 

 sive degree the forms of roches moutonntes the bare grass- 

 less surfaces, dome-like, or undulating in tedious monotony, 

 so characteristic of glacial action, with the usual accom- 

 paniments of flutings and polished channels. The material 

 of the rocks renders these impressions of external friction 

 still more striking, for it is chiefly a coarse conglomerate, 

 of which every part, the boulders as well as the cement 

 is cut as by the lapidary's wheel. The wonderful extent 

 over which these appearances occur, and the unsparing 

 severity with which the natural inequalities of the most 

 obdurate rocks have been smoothed down, is strikingly 

 impressive, when we couple it with the fact that if glaciers 

 really were once much wider spread than at present, this 

 vast chasm was the natural outlet of an icy flood, drawn 

 from a more extensive origin than any other existing in 

 the north of Europe.' 



There may seem to be here an account of the general 

 appearance presented by the fiord at its mouth differing 

 from that given by the more graphic pen of Du Ohaillu. 

 I look upon the latter as probably the more valuable as an 

 account of its picturesque effects ; that of Forbes as more 

 valuable as testimony of a scientific student of distin- 

 guished attainments, giving his special attention as he had 

 been doing long, to the indications of glacial action. On 

 this point both are agreed, and Forbes speaks only of the 

 mouth of the fiord, Du Chaillu takes us into its recesses. 



By some of the geologists whom I have cited it is held 

 that in what is known as the glacial period Scotland must 

 have been covered with one wide-spread sheet of ice and 

 snow of great thickness, as at the present day is Northern 

 Greenland, where there may be seen an interminable glacier 

 extending league upon league, broken only by some black 

 hill top or mountain peak that rises as an island above the 

 sea of ice. But there this vast sheet is ever, even while 

 being replenished by fresh falls of snow, slowly and 

 persistently flowing, or rather creeping, down to the sea, 



