THE PHYSICAL HISTORY Of THE NORWEGIAN FJORDS. 133 



outlet ill the North Sea, is the pihng up of enormous masses of 

 moraine matter by the former glaciers whicli desoended these 

 valleys.* This piling process was doubtless due to the 

 presence of the remarkable chain of islands which follows the 

 coast from Stavanger (latitude 59°) to the Trondhjem Fjord. 

 That these islands are only unsubmerged portions of an 

 extensive tract of Continental land is clear to anyone who 

 has sailed along their shores; and the intensely glaciated 

 character of their rock surfaces down to the water's edge is 

 equally striking. In the former conditions of high elevation 

 during the "Great Ice Age," the obstacle presented by these 

 uprising ridges and bosses to the movement of the glaciers 

 descending from the interior mountains would naturally 

 result in the piling up of huge terminal moraines in the 

 hollows now existing as navigable channels between the 

 islands and the mainland. 



This, however, does not fully solve the problem presented 

 to us by the Norwegian Fjords. If we accept the view that 

 they were originally river-valleys and as such must have 

 been eroded under sub-aerial conditions, their descent or 

 slope must have been continually seawards, as is the case 

 with all river-valleys ; and even giving due allowance for the 

 deepening process by glacier action and the piling up process 

 by moraine matter, we should naturally expect to find a 

 continuation of the valleys themselves beyond the chain of 

 islands across the floor of the North Sea and thus ultimately 

 opening out along the margin of the Arctic Ocean. Strange 

 to say, however, no such evidence is afforded by the soundings 

 over the North Sea floor beyond slight indications in a few 

 cases, and for short distances.! In fact, the 100 fathom contour 

 runs along the coast for many miles with very little variation 

 from a rectilinear course. We are therefore confronted with 

 the problem how to account for the disappearance of these 

 old river-valleys from the floor of the North Sea. 



After much consideration the only answer to this problem 

 seems to be that the channels do actually exist, thus connect- 



* The entrance to the Fjords seldom exceeds 100 fathoms, and is 

 generally less. 



t Sucli as are presented by the Selbioi'n's Fjord, Lat. 59" 56', and the 

 Bredsund Dybet, Lat. 62^ 30'. If we allow in the case of the Sogne 

 Fjord 1,000 feet for the additional depth of the channel due to glacial 

 erosion, and this is probably in excess of the actual amount, we have 

 still a channel 3,000 feet in depth to be accounted for. 



