132 PEOFESSOE EDWARD HULL^ M.A., LL.D., F.E.S,, F.G.S., ON 



G. The Admiralty charts. 



These splendid cliarts, published by our own Admiralty 

 from Norwegian surveys, and on a large scale, are well 

 supplied Avith soundings, both over the area of the Atlantic 

 Ocean as well as that of the inland channels and arms of the 

 sea to their highest reaches. Making use of these soundings 

 (Avhich are all in fathoms^ I have contoured the depths of 

 the larger fjords, including those of the Hardanger, the 

 Sogne, the Nord, the Volden and the Stor, "with their 

 branches. This process enables us to obtain almost at a 

 glance a clear idea of the form of the submerged portions of 

 these gi'eat arras of the sea ; with the general result that we 

 find that upon entering from the outer coast and islands with 

 comparatively shallow floors, they rapidl}^ descend to great 

 depths below the surface, which they retain for considerable 

 distances, only becoming shallower as they approach the 

 upper limits Avhere they pass into the valiej^s descending 

 from the interior mountain plateau. This form of floor is 

 especially characteristic in the case of the Sogne Fjord ; 

 and it Avill be noted on examining the charts, that the 

 position of maximum depth is just where the fjord is 

 bounded on either hand by mountain masses of great extent 

 and elevation ; "where, if covered by snow and ice (as was 

 once the case) of prodigious magnitude glacial erosion 

 would be most powerful and effective. I may here at once 

 state that the phenomena observable in Norway as 

 elsewhere, support, as it seems to me in a convincing 

 manner, the view^s of the late Sir Andrew Ramsay, and of 

 Professor James Geikie on the effect of glaciation amongst 

 the highlands of Scotland, Wales, and other countries 

 including Norway, where glaciers existed in past times.* 



Part III. 

 1. Cause of the rapid shalloiving of the Fjords seaioards. 



According to the Scandinavian geologists, the cause of the 

 rapid shallowing of the great sea-lochs on apjjroaching their 



* Ramsay : " On the Glacial origin of lakes," Quart. Journ. Geol. 

 Soc. Geikie : The Great Ice Age. 2nd Edit. It was during a visit to 

 the Earl of Ducie, F.R.S., that 1 first had an opportunity of studying 

 the Admiralty charts of Norway, contoured with iso-bathic lines by 

 Mr. Etheridge, F.R.S. 



