CHAPTER XVIII. 



VALLEYS. 



DESCENDING from the high -lying plateaux with their 

 snow-fields and glaciers, and passing saeters scattered 

 among the hills, we find we are brought by a succession 

 of valleys towards the coast. As we journey adown these 

 valleys it may occur to us that the origin of them we 

 have seen in the apparent level of the fjelds from which 

 we have come. 



Of the plateau of Southern Norway, Dr Broch writes : 

 ' Fro?n this plateau issue all the great water-courses and 

 rivers of Southern Norway. They take their rise in part 

 from marshes, in part from the nave's, in part from deep 

 basins without any apparent affluents, in part from lofty 

 eminencies where the sources are unseen, but where are 

 constantly being condensed the currents of humid air 

 coming from the west. At their birth the rivers wind 

 about on the plateau in innumerable small tortuous fur- 

 rows, which go from pool to pool, from hollow to hollow, 

 from lakelet to lakelet. Having attained mediocre develop- 

 ment, they rush along in sinuosities from pond to pond, 

 and at length from lake to lake. These reservoirs follow 

 in succession, like strings of pearls, the smaller they are 

 the closer are they together. The more the land is cut 

 up, the deeper also are the waters, and in general the 

 more restricted in size. And it is no small portion of the 

 area of the plateau which is covered with stagnant water 

 which, as do also the running waters, abound in fishes and 

 frogs.' 



These water-courses are incipient valleys they are 

 valleys in the plateaux valleys which may yet become in 



