4 P. A. Øyen. 



Naar vi kaster et blik tilbage paa den iidvikling, som 

 den videnskabelige behandling af de her omhandlede forhold 

 har været gjenstand for, saa møder os et høist mærkeligt 

 billede — noget af det samme forresten, som vi gjenfinder 

 ogsaa i udviklingen inden andre omraader i Norges geologi. 



Paa et i glacialgeologiens historie mærkværdig tidligt 

 tidspunkt var det, at Es mark i sine «Remaries tending to 

 explain the Geological History of the Earth» (The Edin- 

 burgh New Philosophical Journal, Oct. 1826— Apr. 1827, 

 Pag. 107 — 121) om den bekjendte Lysefjordsmoræne ud- 

 talte: «this dike could have been formed only by masses 

 of ice, which must have filled up the whole valley, and^ 

 by their spreading and pressure, have hollowed out its bot- 

 tom not only the dike itself, but the whole horizontal 



surface, exhibits proofs that there has been a glacier here, 

 for the plain exactly resembles those which I found 

 adjoining to the glaciers presently existing between Sond- 

 fiord and Lomb, in Guldbrandsdal» (1. c. Pag. 117 — 118). 

 Videre siger Es m ark: «As I think that what I have 

 stated will be sufficient to prove that the Norwegian moun- 

 tains have been covered with ice down to the level of the 

 sea, and therefore that the sea itself must^have been frozen, 

 Ave may from this find the reason why the Norwegian 

 mountains in general are so steep, I may say perpendicular,, 

 on the sides which hang over the valleys, not only in the 

 valleys which are high above the level of the sea, but in 

 those from the bottom of which the waters run into the 

 Norwegian Fiords (Firths). Ice, or glaciers, by their 

 immense expanding powers, must, beyond doubt, have pro- 

 duced this change in thsir original form, from this circum- 

 stance, that they were continually sliding downwards from 

 the higher mountains to the lower districts, and, by this 



