NATURE 
179 
APRIBBBO, 1 NO.12' | 
ally are animated with a true university spirit and 
that the policy of their governing bodies is actuated 
by true university ideals. The committee does not 
imply that even among the stronger institutions all 
are equally efficient or have reached the same stage of 
development, but it rarely found occasion to think 
that where weaknesses existed the colleges were 
unaware of them or would be backward in applying 
the right remedy when circumstances permitted. The 
committee assures the Board of Education that in its 
opinion most of the colleges are fully competent to 
exercise that “freedom in organising”’ and “carrying 
out their important national and _ international 
functions"’ which it is the policy of the Board of 
Education to secure for them. 
The committee recommends that the grant avail- 
able be distributed in the following proportions :— 
& 
University of Birmingham 13,500 
University of Bristol ; eae “oe aes 7/3000 
University of Durham: Armstrong College... 8,500 
University of Leeds ae 506 SeemeT2\600 
University of Liverpool ... 15,500 
University of Manchester 17,500 
University of Sheffield 7,000 
University College, London ae ... 16,000 
King’s College, London ++» 9,500 | 
King’s College for Women #27000 f 7775°° 
Bedford College, London 7,000 
London School of Economics 4,500 
East London College ... ae 5500 
Nottingham University College 5,700 
Reading University College 53500 
Hartley University College 2,400 
Total --» £139,600 
These grants have been calculated on a total of 
149,000l., and the committee recommends that the 
balance (gqool.) of the present grant, together with 
the balance of 2550/. from the previous year’s Ex- 
chequer grant, be reserved pending consideration of 
a superannuation scheme to be reported on later and 
be regarded as applicable to the institution of such 
a superannuation scheme and to other contingencies. 
A number of general recommendations concludes 
the report. The committee recommends, among other 
matters, that subject to unforeseen contingencies the 
grants be fixed for a period of five years as from 
April 1, 1911, and that the grants be regarded as 
strictly maintenance grants to meet annual expendi- 
ture on teaching and research of a university char- 
acter and standard. 
FIORDS IN RELATION TO EARTH 
MOVEMENTS. 
IORDS have been a powerful influence on modern 
life, for the existing facility for intercourse 
oversea is the difference between modern and 
medizeval Europe which penetrates most deeply into 
all departments of life and work. The Roman Empire 
was held together by its roads, and as its conquerors 
from the wide plains of the east were neither sailors 
nor roadmakers, Europe was resettled on national 
instead of on imperial lines. While Europe thus fell 
naturally into independent States, the most efficient 
of all means of international communication was 
being developed on the shores of Scandinavia; for 
owing to the fiords travel overland there was even 
more difficult than through the forest-clad plains of 
Central Europe. 
1 Abridged from a lecture delivered to the Midland Institute of Birming- 
ham on January 22, by Pro®™ J. W. Gregory, F.R.S. 
NO. 2216, VOL. 89] 
In Norway the fiords were the only | 
| practicable highways, and they, with their labyrinth 
of smooth waterways, their tidal currents, which 
carried boats to and fro independent of wind or oar, 
and their unfailing supplies of food, fuel, and skins, 
attracted men to the sea as much as the barren high- 
lands repelled them from the land. 
The poverty of their own country having driven 
the Norsemen to the sea, the wealth of the more 
fertile southern coast-lands tempted them to the 
career of piracy which made the berserkers the terror 
of the shores of western Europe. ‘These pirates, how- 
ever, amply repaid their debt by their contributions 
to modern seamanship, made in consequence of the 
geographical conditions of the Norwegian fiords. 
feva Nansen’s song contains a true statement of the 
influence of the fiords on the Norwegian race :-— 
Our mother, weep not! it was thou 
Gave them the wish to wander ; 
To leave our coasts and turn their prow 
T’wards night and perils yonder. 
Thou pointed’st to the open sea, 
The long cape was thy finger ; 
The white sail wings they got from thee; 
Thou canst not bid them linger ! 
The white sails of the Norse and Danish Vikings, 
amongst other things, carried the name fiord far and 
wide. It is found on the Irish coast, for example, in 
Wexford, which is said to be derived from the Danish 
Weis-fiord, and in Waterford from Vadre-fiord; and 
the name is now accepted as a technical term in 
general geographical nomenclature. 
The word fiord is used in Norwegian for any arm 
of the sea, including various types of gulfs, bays, and 
straits. But the name is adopted in international 
geography for arms of the sea of a special kind. A 
fiord in this restricted sense is a long inlet which 
extends far inland between steep parallel walls; it 
usually consists of long straight reaches, which are 
bent and receive their tributaries at sharp and regular 
angles. Its walls are high, as fiords are restricted to 
mountain regions. 
Fiord districts combine the features of mountain 
and coastal scenery. Many authors have been im- 
pressed by a sense of the monotony of fiord scenery, 
owing to the constant repetition of the same form; 
it is, however, popular from the easy access to it 
alone smooth waterways, the especial beauty of the 
cloud forms and the colour effects, which do not 
pass with the flash of a tropical sunset, but last for 
hours in the prolonged twilight of most fiord areas. 
The charm of fiord countries is, moreover, enhanced 
by the survival, owing to the special geographical 
environment, of primitive conditions of rural life. 
The origin of fiords has given rise to prolonged 
controversy. The difficulty of the problem is due to 
the peculiar combination of geographical characters. 
The fiords are clearly valleys, of which the lower ends 
have been drowned by the sea. Sea-drowned valleys 
are of three main kinds. 
The most familiar kind is that of ordinary river 
estuaries, which have been submerged by subsidence 
of the land. Such estuaries have gentle, rounded 
slopes and curved shore lines; they are typically 
funnel-shaped, as they increase seaward, both in 
width and depth. The Firths of the Tay and Forth, 
the estuaries of the Thames, Severn, and Humber, 
and Bantry Bay in south-western Ireland are 
examples of such drowned valleys. They are well 
illustrated in north-western Spain, where they are 
called rias, and this term “ria” has been adopted 
as the technical name of this kind of drowned valley. 
The members of the second group are known as 
“fiards” from their typical representatives in south- 
