538 S, W. Monckton — On some Sardanger Lakes. 



a prominent ledge or shelf (Fig. 1, D) of moraine stuff with a flat 

 top nearly as high as the corresponding part of the highest terrace- 

 on the other side of the valley. I think this must be a fragment 

 of the highest terrace, and if so shows that it extended a long way 

 down the west side of the valley. 



Again, close to Vik Church there is an oblong mound running, 

 north and south ; the top is flat and G7 yards long, and its height 

 perhaps 40 feet. My attention was drawn to it by Herr Na^sheim,. 

 the proprietor of the Hotel Voringsfos, and at first I was at a loss- 

 to account for it. I now think it is a fragment of a higher terrace, 

 which has been left by the river when it cut down to the church flat. 



At the present time, too, the river is carving out a terrace at sea- 

 level and throwing the material removed from its banks into the 

 fjord, forming a vast spoil heap which, owing to the great depth of 

 the fjord, is only now beginning to project slightly. 



Helland remarks : " Near to where the river issues from the lake 

 the solid rock protrudes, being here covered with groovings. Thus 

 the lake is a true rock-basin." ^ This no doubt refers to the spot 

 already mentioned where, on the west of the valley, rock extends 

 nearly as far down as the river, but there is a space of about half 

 a mile between this rock and the eastern face of the valley, which is 

 covered by moraine. I therefore see nothing to show that the 

 bottom of the old valley is not buried under this moraine, and 

 would observe that the course taken by the overflow from the lake 

 over the top of the moraine could have no reference to the shape of 

 the bottom of the rock valley beneath. I suspect that if all the- 

 moraine stuff were removed the Eidfjord Vand would prove to be 

 an arm of the Hardanger Fjord. 



Some thirteen miles west of Vik a long arm runs south from the 

 Hardanger. It is the Sor Fjord, and at its head we find many of 

 the features described above repeated. There are again step terraces, 

 on one of which stands Odda, and there is a vast moraine forming, 

 a dam to a lake — the Sandven Vand. The moraine attains a heiglit 

 of 446 feet above sea-level. The top is not flat, but forms a mound, 

 its shape being, as Helland suggests, probably due to the fact that 

 its top stood above the sea-level at the time of its deposition. Below 

 there is a large flat terrace at a level of about 308 feet above the fjord. 



The step of the terrace on which the school at Odda stands has- 

 a slight slope away from the fjord, the result of the manner in 

 which the river has carved it out ; and in cutting out the lowest 

 terrace, the river has left a bank projecting from the next step' 

 between the lowest terrace and the fjord, which, until I realized that 

 these terraces were cut out, somewhat puzzled me. 



We will now cross to the north of the Hardanger Fjord and glance- 

 at the Graven Fjoi-d, with its lake, the Graven Vand. That lake is- 

 a mile from the fjord. Its level is 95 feet above the sea and it is- 

 282 feet deep. At the head of the fjord there is a large flat with 

 a long slope under water, which is in process of extension by the 

 present action of the river. This flat extends for some distance- 



1 Log. cit., p. 16G. 



