170 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 



down in the valley, not far from the glacier, was the Buer 

 farm ; and from the mountain side came a cascade between 

 700 and 800 feet in height The owner of the little farm 

 was in great tribulation. He saw with much anxiety the 

 steady advance of the ice which had already destroyed 

 some of his pasture land at the head of the valley, and in 

 a few years would probably sweep away the little wood 

 which we had passed on our way up ; then the farmer 

 would be compelled to find new quarters, and perhaps be 

 a ruined man. He had tried to sell his farm, but nobody 

 was willing to buy it, fearing to cast away their money. 

 It would not be strange indeed if in the course of forty 

 or fifty years this glacier should reach the very shore of 

 the Sandven lake, whence it could go no farther, for the 

 ice would melt in the water ; but glaciers are fickle both 

 in their forward and retrograde movements, and in a few 

 years the Buer-brae-en may retire instead of advancing.' 



It is interesting in looking upon such scenes forgetting 

 for the time, if we be there in the prosecution of the study 

 of forest science, the importance of these glaciers as 

 perennial sources of supply of water in the rivers which 

 are made use of for the floatage of timber from remote high- 

 lying lands to the coast to look upon them as modern 

 illustrations of what was written well nigh 3000 years ago 

 in Ecclesiastes attributed to the Royal Preacher, who 

 ' spake three thousand proverbs ; and his songs were a 

 thousand and four ; who spake of trees, from the cedar tree 

 that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth 

 out of the wall ; who spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and 

 of creeping things, and of fishes ;' and that twice repeated, 

 ' That which hath been is now ; and that which is to be 

 hath already been. . . . 'The thing that hath been is that 

 which shall be ; and that which is done is that which shall 

 be done ; and there is no new thing under the sun. Is 

 there any thing of which it can be said, see this is new? 

 It hath been already ot old time which was before us,' 

 and to look upon them as supplying us with data for the 



