484 J. M. Wilson — Forms of Valleys and Lake-hasins. 



2000 yards in twenty years, and during the present year has 

 advanced 70 yards. It is now (by aneroid) 1155 feet above the 

 sea. The steep slope of ice terminates in a very small moraine, 

 a yard or two wide, supplied partly by small stones falling from the 

 surface, and partly from the ploughing effect of the snout of the 

 glacier. Masses of fresh turf, with flowers still in bloom, are thrown 

 up in this moraine as the inexorable mass pushes on. It is now 

 ploughing through the sweet pastures belonging to a farm. Within 

 a few yards of the glacier, are to be found wild roses and foxgloves, 

 ladies-mantle and holly fern, and a score of meadow flowers, with 

 ripe raspberries, and strawberries and blackberries. By ascending 

 the valley by the side of the glacier, or on the steep face of the cliffs, 

 one may study, under the most advantageous circumstances possible, 

 the mode of action of a glacier. There, at about 700 feet above the 

 lowest point of the glacier, on the north side, the joints in the rock 

 run in such a way as to expose the blocks to be torn out of their 

 beds ; and there I saw a huge mass, detached by only a foot or two 

 from its place, but on its way down the valley. There is also the 

 peculiarity in this glacier of a large waterfall in the middle of it, 

 at about 3500 feet above the sea, falling from under a wall of ice 

 topping precipitous glaciated rocks, over which masses of ice occa- 

 sionally fall. 



The glaciers in the Horungeme mountains, at any rate on the 

 eastern and northern faces, are retiring at present. One of those on 

 the eastern side, visible from the hills about two hours' walk beyond 

 the Morke Fos, showed most plainly the successive moraines that it 

 had left as it had paused in its retreat. Ajiother glacier visible from 

 the same point is the most symmetrical as regards its form and its 

 crevasses that I remember to have seen. The crevasses form regulai 

 parabolic curves with the vertices pointing up the valley. 



About a mile from Eide on the Hardanger Fiord, on the post-road 

 to Vossevangen, is a cliff of mica slate. The lower half of it was 

 protected from weathering by a slope of stones, an old moraine, till 

 within the last few years, when the stones were removed to make 

 the road. Hence there is exhibited a splendid contrast between the 

 weathered and unweathered parts of the cliff. The lower part is 

 smooth and striated, though the material is here soft and crumbly ; 

 and the upper part, is already much broken up. Young trees are 

 growing in its crevices, blocks have fallen from it, turf is beginning 

 to form on ledges in it, and it has lost every trace of glaciation in 

 detail. The fact is of course commonplace enough, but the contrast 

 is so striking in this particular instance that it may be pardonable to 

 mention it. 



In conclusion, I will repeat that for structural geology there is no 

 place like Norway ; and it is as a working hypothesis for observations — 

 and for this purpose almost any hypothesis is better than none — that 

 I commend, especially to geological tourists in Norway, these obser- 

 vations and speculations as to the forms of valleys and the origin of 

 lake-basins. 



