THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



No. CI— NOVEMBER, 1872. 



L — On the Forms of Valleys and Lake-basins in Norway. 



By J. M. Wilson, M.A., F.G.S., 



Mathematical Master of Rugby School. 



THE general object of this paper is to draw attention to the 

 apparently close connexion between the configuration of the 

 surface in a glaciated country like Norway, and the disposition of the 

 principal planes of division of the rocks, whether these planes be 

 caused by stratification, cleavage or joints. 



I do not know how far this connexion has been already noticed by 

 others, or if it has been noticed at all. My attention was first called 

 to it in a visit to Glencoe some years ago, where, however, the con- 

 nexion is not always to be traced, in consequence partly of changes 

 subsequent to glaciation. And in a short visit to Norway, during this 

 summer, in which I visited the Hardanger and Sogne Fiords and 

 their neighbourhood, the same connexion was again forced on my 

 attention. I therefore offer these remarks to the attention of 

 geologists, that they may verify how far the connexion that I speak 

 of is general and important as throwing light on the origin of the 

 details of the configuration of the surface of the earth. 



Norway presents many advantages to a student of this branch of 

 geology. Its physical features are striking; and they are continually 

 repeated till they become almost monotonous, and so whatever 

 lesson they have to teach is driven home by sheer iteration. The 

 glaciation of the country down to the sea-level has been very recent, 

 and ice marks and striations are so common as after a time scarcely 

 to attract attention ; subsequent weathering has only here and there, 

 when the rocks are soft,, begun to obliterate the effects of the ice- 

 sheet and glaciers ; there is often no accumulation of soil and turf on 

 the rocks to hide their structure ; in the summer at any rate there is 

 no snow ; and the torrents and waterfalls have been acting for so 

 short a time, geologically speaking, that their effect on the landscape 

 can be discerned at a glance, and is generally quite insignificant. We 

 have therefore in Norway a country in which the effect of ice may 

 be studied with pre-eminent advantages. 



Moreover, the nature of the rocks in the neighbourhood of Bergen 

 and the Hardanger and Sogne Fiords is well adapted for observations 

 of this kind ; the rocks are principally of mica slate, clay slate, and 

 gneiss, with divisional planes very strongly marked, and in blocks 

 often of very large size. The rocks are in general very hard, and 

 compact ; the slaty structure not being predominant. 



The valleys in this part of Norway are merely the continuation of 



VOL. IX.— NO. CI. 31 



