﻿74 J. R. Dakym — Sigh-level Terraces in Noncay. 



highest of these is more than 500 feet above the sea (but a lands- 

 man is a bad judge of heights and distances across water). This 

 year (1872) I found sands and gravels, apparently precisely similar 

 to the lower terraces, at Haugen, on the watershed as you cross 

 from the Stor Fjord to the Nord Fjord, at the height of 1100 feet 

 above the sea. This sand I judged by the eye to reach as high as 

 1200 feet ; and my impression is that it was merely a part of a 

 terrace stretching for a great distance along the hill-side well over 

 the watershed. 



But the best instance I know of high-level terraces, similar in all 

 respects (except the all-important one of position) to those acknow- 

 ledged marine ones at the heads of fjords, is in the Gudbrandsdal 

 and on the watershed between that dale and the Komsdal. The 

 traveller going north ascends between Laurgaard and Broendhaugen 

 by a rocky defile to a rolling plateau covered with sand-hills 

 arranged in irregular mounds. Just before reaching Dovre on this 

 plateau, the road crosses a bridge, where a stream from the west 

 joins the main river. This stream issues from a narrow glen, by 

 which a road leads to Vaage, and the mouth of this glen, just where it 

 opens out upon the main valley, is occupied by terraces of sand and 

 gravel precisely similar to those at the heads of fjords ; and the top 

 of these terraces coincides with a distinct mark, which runs hori- 

 zontally along the hill-side as far as the eye can reach, till it is lost 

 to sight round the gable end at the descent above Laurgaard. This 

 mark might, were the beds flat, be taken for an escarpment ; but 

 it is nothing of the sort. The beds are highly inclined, and the mark 

 runs horizontally along the solid rock for miles across the bedding.^ 

 On the opposite, or east side of the valley, is a corresponding 

 feature, apparently at the same height above the stream. Dovre is 

 marked on the pocket map of the " Eeise Enter i Norge " as 1500 

 feet above the sea ; and it is not much higher than the bridge. 

 The top of the terrace is by aneroid between 400 and 500 feet 

 above the bridge. This would make it about 2000 feet above 

 the sea. Judging by the eye, it reaches very nearly, if not quite, as 

 high as Dombaas,^ which is given on the map as 2100 feet above 

 the sea. This horizontal water-margin can be traced along the 

 west side of the valley at least as far north as Holset, where a large 

 valley coming in from the west shows sand-terraces. The main 

 valley is ver^r flat all the way from Holset to Lesjivserk and 

 Molmen, between which places is the lake flowing both ways, and 

 therefore on the very watershed. The terrace and its accompanying 

 water-mark are therefore up to the level of the watershed, if they 

 are not actually higher.^ This is a point which can only be settled 

 by a proper examination of the ground : and a very important point 

 it is, for it makes all the difference between the terrace being due to 

 marine action and to the waters of an ice-dammed lake. If the top 



'_ The Norwegian Geological Map marks the beds as striking directly across the 

 main valley, but no amount of dip is given. 



2 For any one wishing to make an extended examination of the country, Dombaas 

 would be very good head-quarters. There is an excellent inn there. 



^ From this point I have departed from the text of my original manuscript in 

 order to indicate the two possible solutions that appear open to us. 



