172 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 



amid all this savage sublimity there are rich substantial 

 farms. These farms are due to the table-land of the 

 terraces, of which there are two very distinctly marked. 

 Besides the snow patches there are Lilliputian glaciers 

 in abundance, where the whole history of glacier formation 

 is shown at a glance. There are the snow-fields above 

 filling a basin, from which dark peaks arise; the basin has 

 a downward opening, a notch leading to a little steep 

 trough-like valley that closes in below. In the upper basin 

 the snow surface is thawed by the sun, the water sinks 

 into the spongy snow below, freezes again on its way, and 

 binds it all together as a seeming solid, but capable of 

 yielding to the pressure of the mass above, and the expan- 

 sion of refreezing; this pressure forces it through the 

 notch of the upper basin into the lower. As it passes 

 over the bend from the lesser to the- greater declivity it is 

 split upon its surface by this bending, and the blue 

 crevasses are formed. In squeezing so forcibly through 

 this opening it polishes its rocky sides, and the fragments 

 of stone that are torn away, or that fall upon it, become 

 bedded into the ice, and when they reach the portion that 

 slides upon the rock they groove it with parallel lines, 

 which will mark the place where these glaciers have been 

 if in future ages they should cease to exist. 



' There are other snow basins which fail to form true 

 glaciers, owing to the want of the trough-like valley below, 

 that closes in at its lower part. Yet in these there is 

 evidently a downward flow, or advancement/ of the ice and 

 snow, which is forced through the notch ; but this notch 

 communicating with a long straight trough like a water 

 gully, the foremost of the advancing mass bends over until 

 it becomes detached, and then forms an avalanche instead 

 of a glazier. Several ot' these small avalanches came down 

 during my walk. I mistook the first for a water cascade, 

 until its cessation, and the thundering rumble which fol- 

 lowed undeceived me. 



'In these I found an explanation of the snow patches 

 nearly level with the corn fields ; for each of the aval- 



