128 PEOIESSOE EDWARD HULL, M.A., LL.D.^ F.R.S., P.G.S., ON 



central portions of these profound sea-lochs which at the 

 present day carry the ocean waters to the very roots of the 

 central tableland ; the source and origin of the glacier ice. 



3. Age of the rocks hounding the Fjords. 



Throughout their course the fjords and connected valleys 

 are found only traversing rocks of the highest geological 

 antiquity known under the name of Archaaan and Silurian ; 

 consisting of granite, gneiss, hornblendic and micaceous 

 schists, quartzite and dolomite, generally presenting a rude, 

 though decided, stratification. Nowhere are these valleys 

 and fjords bounded by walls of Mesozoic or Secondary age, 

 and it is only on the eastern side of the Scandinavian pro- 

 montory that they penetrate strata of even Silurian age; 

 as for example in the Christiania Fjord. Geologists and 

 petrologists are Avell acquainted with the structure and com- 

 position of the Archfean rocks, the oldest of the world ; but of 

 their mode and conditions of formation, notwithstanding all 

 that has been written on the subject, we are in comparatively 

 profound ignorance, beyond the general inference that they 

 were deposited imdcr physical conditions differing widely 

 from those in w4iich the Palasozoic and later deposits were 

 formed, and in which we find remains of animal and 

 vegetable life. Needless to say, no organic forms have 

 been found in these Archsean rocks ; and between the 

 period of their formation and that of the Silurian strata, 

 a long lapse of geological time probably intervened.* 



Part II. 



1. Original condition and formation of the Fjords. 

 Having thus passed in rapid review the features and 

 structure of the region of south- Avestern Scandinavia in 

 which the most important of the fjords occur, 1 now pass on 

 to the next and more immediate part of my subject, namely : 

 the physical history of these inland sea-lochs themselves; 

 and from this history it will be clearly shown, if my views 

 are correct, that the fjords are primarily the outcome of 



* There have just been issued the sheets of the International 

 Geological Map of Europe ; Carte geologique internationale de V Europe., 

 feuilles 11, 17, and 18 (Berlin, 1902), on which the geological structure of 

 the region now being described is admirably shown. 



