H. W. Moncldon — Marine and Subae rial Erosion. 411 



as the Rembesdals fall. Returning to Surrey, we find that something 

 also occurred there, for the river which had deposited the Chobham 

 Ridges Gravel, now at a level of 400 feet above the sea, appears to 

 have deepened its valley and deposited the sheets of gravel on the 

 side of the Fox Hills, now at a level of about 250 feet. Dr. Reusch 

 suggests that the result in Norway was produced by a rise of the 

 land, and I have made a similar suggestion with regard to Surrey 

 (" Origin of the Gravel-Flats of Surrey and Berkshire," Geol. Mag., 

 N.S., Nov. 1901, Dec. IV, Vol. VIII, p. 510). 



I will leave the valleys, however, and return to the high ground of 

 Hardaiiger. To obtain a general idea of it let us ascend one of 

 the mountains on the north of the Fjord, say one of those above 

 Norheimsund ; then looking south and south-east across the fjord 

 we see the long flat snowfield, Folgefond, stretching above all 

 along the skyline. To the left the top is a little lower and merely 

 dotted with snow patches, one prominent summit, Haarteigen, 

 standing above the general level to about the height of the snow- 

 field. A little to the north, but hidden by nearer mountains, is the 

 Hardanger Jokl snowfield, also rising above the mountain-tops 

 around it. Now what are we to say about this, the topmost plain 

 of the country ? Is this a plain of marine erosion, or have we in it 

 another old plain of subaerial denudation, or peneplain as some 

 authors would term it ? Dr. Reusch decides in favour of the latter 

 explanation. He says (p. 131), "The high mountain expanses of 

 Norway are most likely, as a rule, peneplains — I do not say 

 a peneplain, for probably they do not all belong to the same 



geological time One district where this can be exemplified 



is, for instance, the high mountain region north and north-east of 

 the Hardanger Jokl. Above the open stretches, where the saeters 

 are, there rise higher plateau-shaped mountains the surface of which 

 seems as though it were the remains of another and older peneplain." 

 Thus we have Hallingskarven, 1,951 metres ; Hardangerjoklen, with 

 about the same altitude; Bleien, 1,696 metres; Blaaskavlen, 1,773 

 metres, etc. And he gives (p. 134) a map on which he marks these 

 and other plateaux, as well as Haarteigen and the Folgefond, as 

 remains of the older peneplain. He adds that the level of the 

 highest plateau seems to be independent of the geological rock 

 formation ; thus it rises above the line where we have a tolerably 

 horizontal boundary between the Grundfjeld (mostly gneiss) and 

 the Cambro-Silurian schists. 



I refrain from going further into the question now, and content 

 myself with the remark that I think Dr. Reusch has clearly shown 

 that an alteration in the level of the sea almost of necessity causes 

 changes of the land surface, which extend far inland, and the 

 commencement of a new land surface at a new level ; and if tliis 

 is the case amongst the hard rocks of Norway, how much greater 

 must be the effect of a change of sea-level where the inland rocks 

 are soft as in the south of England ! 



