158 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 



tremity of it where it is slowly melting away, though con- 

 tinuously replaced, like the lower fringe of the so-called 

 ' Devil's Table-Cloth ' on Table Mountain, which has been 

 spoken of, there drop and accumulate. We have many 

 indications of such glacial action in Norway. 



It requires sometimes an experienced geologist to judge 

 satisfactorily in regard to such deposits, and determine 

 whether they be the products of glacial or of torrential 

 action. Several discussions relative to the origin of large 

 deposits in France are cited by me in a volume entitled 

 Reboisement in France* (pp. 101-117, &c.) In regard to the 

 deposits in Finland there is little room for reasonable 

 doubt that they are moraines, and not what in France are 

 designated Us de dejection from torrents. 



Norway abounds in similar indications of glacial 

 action in the ages to which these are referred, and many 

 tourists have recorded their impressions of the appearances 

 presented by the glaciers and snow-fields which still 

 exist. 



The indications of such glacial action carrying off 

 boulders and stones from mountain tops and mountain 

 sides, transporting them to the extremity of the glacier, 

 however remote, and depositing them there are to be 

 found everywhere. But the indications of this action, 

 according to the authority I have cited, are various. 

 They consist of striae, or somewhat parallel markings, 

 on the surfaces of the rocks, of moraines, or heaps of 

 stones and gravels, of erratic deposits, of beds of clay, 

 and of debris of marine shells. The continental ice, at the 

 time of some of these deposits, must have covered the 

 whole Scandinavian peninsula. And it is supposed that 



* Reboisement in France ; or, Records of the Re-planting of the Alps, the Cevennes, 

 and the Pyrenees with trees, herbage, and bush, with a view to arresting and prevent- 

 ing the destructive consequences of torrents : in which are given a resume of Surell's 

 study of Alpine torrents, and of the literature of France relative to Alpine torrents, and 

 remedial measures which have been proposed for adoption to prevent the disastrous 

 consequences following from them, translations of documents and enactments, show- 

 ing what legislative and executive measures have been taken by the Government of 

 France in connection with rtboisement as a remedial application against destructive 

 torrents, and details in regard to the past, present, and prospective aspects of the 

 W0 rk. London : Henry S. King & Co. 1876. 



