Prof. E. Hull — Tlie Norwegian Fjords. 11 



descend below the surface of the ocean-water with which they are 

 filled ; they are those known as the Sogne, the Hardanger, the 

 Yolden, and the Nord. 



The Sogne Fjord is by far the largest of the Scandinavian sea-locks 

 entering the Atlantic, and drains a very extensive area of mountain 

 land. By means of the isobathic lines contoured from the sounding 

 on the charts, one gains almost at a glance the form of the channel in 

 which the water lies. Entering from the outer ocean with a com- 

 paratively shallow depth, the floor is found to descend rapidly down- 

 wards till it reaches to almost 4,000 feet (665 fathoms) below the 

 surface, a depth which it retains for a considerable distance, only 

 becoming shallower as it approaches the upper limit of the submerged 

 channel, where it receives the waters of the rivers descending from 

 the interior snowfield. The maximum depth is seen to occur where 

 the fjord is bounded on either hand by mountain masses of great 

 extent and elevation. Similar phenomena characterize the other 

 fjords I have named above, and need not be repeated. They all 

 increase in depth inwai'dsfrom their outlet amongst the islands which 

 follow the coast from south to north throughout its greater extent. 

 This form of channel evidently requires explanation, being altogether 

 different from that of river valleys elsewhere, which necessarily, in 

 flowing from their sources to their outlets, descend from higher to 

 lower levels. 



The following are the depths to which someof thefjords reach towards 

 the centre of their range between their outlet and their source : — 



Fathoms. Feet. 



The Sogne (about) . . . . 665 4,000 



,, Hardanger . . . . 425 2,550 



,, Volclen . . . . . 383 2,298 



,, Norcl 300 1,800 



Assuming tlien, as I have done, that the fjords are partly sub- 

 merged valleys of rivers which originally entered the Atlantic or the 

 Arctic Oceans, it is clear that they could only have been eroded when 

 they were in the condition of land surfaces — as rivers never erode 

 their channels under the waters of the ocean. 



As soon as rivers enter the ocean their erosive action ceases, and 

 the force of the streams is dissipated. We must therefore suppose in 

 the case of the Norwegian Fjords an uprise of the whole area to an 

 extent of several thousand feet above the present level (in reference 

 to that of the ocean) at a time when rivers flowed down them, and 

 as such they must have had ever-deepening channels throughout their 

 course. This is quite in accordance with the form of the river valleys 

 of Western Europe which entered the ocean in recent Tertiary 

 times. ^ 



The Glaciation of Nor iv ay. — In order to account for the peculiar 

 form of the channels it is necessary to invoke the effects of glacial 

 snow and ice under its two heads ; first, the erosive action of the ice 

 itself, which, carrying in its mass fragments of rock, or sand, and 

 under the pressure of thousands of feet of ice, wears down the floor 



^ As I have shown in my recently pubHshed monograph, On the Suh-oceanic 

 Physiography of the North Atlantic Ocean (E. Stanford), 1912. 



