192 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 



valley, the river winding through a fine wooded plain, and 

 round about green knolls and mounds, that have a very 

 complicated appearance even from above. On descending 

 the valley, and walking a few miles down it, the structure 

 upon which the peculiar appearance depends becomes 

 evident. 



1 There are two very distinct kinds of valleys commonly 

 met with in mountainous countries : one, the long narrow 

 ravine, a mere stone trough, formed by the rocky slopes of 

 the mountain sides meeting each other at an angle ; this 

 angle being more or less choked with fragments of fallen 

 rock, among which a torrent roars. These valleys vary very 

 considerably in their features according to their elevation, 

 the steepness of their sides, and the character of the rock 

 composing them. Some are deep gorges, with barren and 

 almost perpendicular walls ; others have a more gradual 

 incline, and their sides are covered with woods, or culti- 

 vated ledges and slopes. The other is the open, basin - 

 shaped valley. This, like all valleys of any considerable 

 extent, gives path to a river or small stream ; but if the 

 wide basin- shaped valley be deepest in the middle, as is 

 usually the case, the river fills the hollow, and forms a 

 lake, spreading itself out in calm repose after its fitful 

 journey among the rocks above. Thus, the lake of 

 Geneva is the sleeping Rhine. That of Constance is the 

 Rhine reposing in like manner. The Mediterranean is a 

 larger valley filled with waters, where many rivers sleep. 

 And the ocean is the main valley of the world, the final 

 resting-place of all the rivers. 



' There is another modification of this open basin-shaped 

 valley, where a lake of earth, generally fertile soil, takes 

 the place of the outspread river. This is easily accounted 

 for. The toiling river brings a burden with it, which it 

 lays down at its resting-place. So long as it continues in 

 rapid motion, stirred and eddied by the resisting rock, it is 

 turbid and milky with the suspended particles it has 

 abraded from the mountain sides, but when it becomes 

 quiescent, these sink to the bottom, the largest first, and 



