THE PHYSICAL HISTOllY OP THE NORWEGIAN FJORDS. 131 



comes suddenly into view as the traveller approaches from the 

 Vossvangen Valley, and which is calculated to impress him 

 with a fcelinj^, not only of admiration, but of awe ; a feeling- 

 shared in by Professor James Forbes when viewing the Sogne 

 Fjord into which the Vossvangen immediately descends. 



-*^- 

 ^^' 



FIG. 1.— ENTKANCE TO THE HAEDANGEK FJORD. 



5. Unequal depths of the Fjords. 



The scenes described above belong to the land ; but not 

 less profound must be our astonishment Avhen we come to 

 consider the great depths to which some of the larger fjords 

 descend below the surface of the sea. These depths, 

 hoAvever, are very unequal ; for, while that of the Sogne 

 Fjoi'd reaches to ahiiost 4.000 feet {Q^b fathoms) the 

 Hardanger Fjord a few miles furtljer south, only descends to 

 2,750 feet (425 fathoms), the Volden Fjord to 2,298 feet 

 (383 fathoms), and the Nord Fjord to 1,800 feet (300 

 fathoms) ; these two latter lying some distance to the north 

 of the Sogne. Now, as the Sogne Fjord is by much the 

 largest of the Norwegian sea-lochs, and drains a larger tract 

 of mountain land, there would seem to be a clear coimection 

 between the size of these sea-lochs and their depths, as 

 would be expected under the view that they have been 

 formed by the erosive action whether of rivers, or of ice, or 

 of both. But I must here refer for a moment to the 

 Admiralty charts, from which Ave derive our knowledge of 

 the depths of the fjords themselves. 



K 2 



