332 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



the Scandivanian peninsula, have been remarked by all observers for being of an extra- 

 ordinary transparency, which has, perhaps, no parallel in any other region. Here are 



those inlets of the sea, wild 

 and romantic in their aspect, 

 called the fiords of Norway, 

 a name analogous to the Scot- 

 tish firth, both having the 

 same Norse derivation. "No- 

 thing can be more surpris- 

 ing," says Sir A. de Capell 

 Brooke, " and beautiful than 

 the singular clearness of the 

 Northern seas. As we passed 

 slowly over the surface, the 

 bottom, which here was in ge- 

 neral a white sand, was clearly 

 visible, with its minutest ob- 

 jects, where the depth was 

 from twenty to twenty-five 

 Fiord of Norway. fathoms. During the whole 



course of the tour I made, nothing appeared to me so extraordinary as the inmost recesses 

 of the deep thus unveiled to the eye. The surface of the ocean was unruffled by the 

 slightest breeze, and the gentle splashing of the oars scarcely disturbed it. Hanging over 

 the gunwale of the boat, with wonder and delight I gazed on the slowly-moving scene 

 below. Where the bottom was sandy the different kinds of asterise, echini, and even the 

 smallest shells, appeared at that great depth conspicuous to the eye ; and the water seemed, 

 in some measure, to have the effect of a magnifier, by enlarging the objects like a telescope, 

 and bringing them seemingly nearer. Now, creeping along, we saw, far beneath, the 

 rugged sides of a mountain rising towards our boat, the base of which, perhaps, was hidden 

 some miles in the great deep below. Though moving on a level surface, it seemed almost 

 as if we were ascending the height under us ; and when we passed over its summit, which 

 rose in appearance to within a few feet of our boat, and came again to the descent, which 

 on this side was suddenly perpendicular, and overlooking a watery gulf, as we pushed 

 gently over the last point of it, it seemed almost as if we had thrown ourselves down this 

 precipice, the illusion, from the crystal clearness of the deep, actually producing a sudden 

 start. Now we came again to a plain, and passed slowly over the submarine forests and 

 meadows, which appeared in the expanse below ; inhabited, doubtless, by thousands of 

 animals, to which they afford both food and shelter animals unknown to man ; and I 

 could sometimes observe large fishes of singular shape gliding softly through the watery 

 thickets, unconscious of what was moving above them. As we proceeded, the bottom 

 became no longer visible ; its fairy scenes gradually faded to the view, and were lost in 

 the dark green depths of the ocean." Mr. Barrow, while remarking the extraordinary 

 clearness of the northern waters, in language equally as strong as that of the preceding 

 statement, speaks of the reflection of the mountains being often as well-defined upon their 

 surface as the rocks themselves, so that when viewed at a short distance it is no easy 

 matter to decide where the line is that separates the water from the shore. This 

 uncertainty, when crossing one of the fiords in a boat, has a most singular effect. Every 

 thing appears upside down ; houses upset, trees growing the wrong way, men walking 

 on their heads, cattle on their backs ; the whole appearance having an air of reality which 

 for the moment beguiles the senses. 



