556 H. W. Monckton — On some Hardanger Lakes. 



There are two fairly well-marked sliore-Hnes on the lake face of 

 the moraine, one about 100 feet above the surface and the other 

 rather lower. These no doubt mark stages in the deepening of the 

 outlet by which the river flows to the sea : probably the deepening 

 of the outlet bore some relation to the rise of the land. On the west 

 of the outlet there is a working for gravel on the inner face of the 

 moraine, and it shows ordinary moraine stuff — sand, gravel, and 

 stones of all sizes, mixed loosely together. 



There is a rough stratification parallel to the face of the bank, as 

 though material liad been carried off the top and rolled down the face 

 of the moraine towards the lake, and this makes me suspect that the 

 ice had left the face of the moraine whilst it was still submerged 

 beneath the sea. At the top of the pit there is a little blue stratified 

 clay. It is about 50 feet above the lake, and I saw in 1899 a small 

 section in a similar blue clay by the roadside near the western end 

 of the moraine, about 15 feet above the lake. The section was about 

 2\ feet deep, and exposed stiff blue clay well stratified with a layer 

 or two of ferruginous deposit. These clay deposits show that the 

 level of the lake was lowered very graduall3^ 



Passing now to the south end of the lake, we find an alluvial flat 

 of considerable extent, on which the village of Ssebo stands, and 

 above the flat are some step terraces up to a level of perhaps 200 feet. 

 These terraces clearly cannot have been formed when the glacier 

 extended down the valley beyond them, and they are flat and have 

 obviously been deposited under water — the water of the lake. They 

 therefore belong to the period when the ice had left the lake and 

 when the water of the lake stood at least 144 feet higher than now ; 

 in other words, before the river had cut down its outlet to a depth of 

 more than 207 feet below the top of the highest terrace. Taking 

 this together with the evidence furnished at the moraine end of the 

 lake, I am led to suspect that the glacier left the lake during an 

 early part of this cutting-out process. 



Two valleys meet at Saebo, and in both we find moraines and 

 terraces. The western valley is Hjalmodal, and near its mouth 

 there is a moraine of great blocks reaching a height of over 300 feet 

 above the sea, and also a fairly flat-topped moraine at a rather lower 

 level. The eastern valley eventually leads up to the celebrated 

 "Voringsfos. At the lower end above Seebo a knob of rock stands 

 out, or rather did stand out, in the middle of the valley, and the 

 space between it and the valley wall is filled in with moraine stuff 

 to a height of some 200 feet above the river. Small sections show 

 that this is in part stratified sand. The Eiver Bjoreia flows round 

 the other side of the knob, and above the river are small terraces. 



A little further up the valley a sandy flat seems to mark the site 

 of a small lake ; terraces occur on both sides, and probably once 

 formed a barrier across the valley when the glacier occupied it as 

 far down as this point. The river has now removed much of this 

 barrier, and the lake is dry. 



I now return to Vik i Eidfjord and the step terraces between the 

 fjord and the great moraines. They are confined almost to the west 



