THE 



JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY 



FEBRUARY-MARCH, 1894. 



THE GLACIAL SUCCESSION IN NORWAY. 



As Scandinavia was unquestionably the chief center of the 

 great North European glaciation, it follows that Norway is a 

 country of glacial denudation rather than of glacial deposition. 

 A complete apprehension of its Quaternary history is, therefore, 

 not possible solely through the study of the deposits. The 

 great marks of erosion are to be taken into consideration. We 

 thus come immediately upon the great problem : How far are 

 we to go in our acceptance of glacial erosion ? It is of course 

 impossible here to enter into the whole vexed question. It 

 is, however, necessary to briefly summarize some of the reasons 

 which lead the geologist in Norway to admit an erosion of so 

 great degree, that both our fjords and lakes fall wholly within its 

 limits. The most convincing argument is, perhaps, the fact that 

 the great North European diluvial plain contains Scandinavian 

 detritus in such immense quantity that the rock basins in Scan- 

 dinavia could be refilled and replenished many times with it. 

 A. Helland has calculated that the German and Russian diluvial 

 sheet could fill not only the Scandinavian lakes, but also the 

 Baltic, and still heighten the whole peninsula 25 metres (80'). 

 And besides, we have the enormous quantity of Norwegian rock 

 detritus which forms the bottom of the North Sea and the broad 

 submarine plateau to the west of northern Norway. Even if 

 this estimate is not entirely correct, it is impossible to deny that 

 such enormous quantities of drift have been removed from Nor- 

 way in Quaternary time that we must look for marks of denu- 

 dation of quite as great degree as our lakes and fjords. 



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