THE SCANDINAVIAN FIOEDS. 



85 



Fk 



■. 41. — Dramms-fioed and 

 svekdviken channel. 

 Scale 1 : 152,000. 



this source, and the marine algaj cither perish shiwly or give phice to fresh-water 

 phmts of rapid growth. The Dramms-tiord, fed by the Dramms-elv, the second 

 largest river in Norway, resembles other formations of the same kind in its uniform 

 width of 1 to 2 miles, and mean depth of 350 feet. But at the Sverdviken 

 defile it suddenly contracts to a stream 16 feet deep and a few hundred yards 

 wide, running seawards with a current of 

 9 miles an hour during the flow, and about 

 5 at ebb. 



Most of the fiords are partially obstructed 

 at their entrance by the remains of old 

 moraines, which in the north are called 

 havhroen, or "sea bridges." Both sides of 

 the Gulf of Christiania are regularly lined 

 with the shingly deposits of such ancient 

 moraines. But what is the origin of the bars 

 occurring at certain intervals from the mouth 

 to the upper end of the fiords ? Some are ridges 

 between two valleys resembling those of the 

 upheaved land ; some are slopes produced by 

 erosion ; while others, no doubt, are moraines 

 like those deposited by former glaciers at the 

 foot of the hills in the upheaved valleys. 

 For, like the Scottish firths, the Scandinavian 

 fiords existed before the glacial period, and 

 were able to maintain their original form by 

 means of the vast glaciers filling and deepening 

 their beds, and grinding smooth their rugged 

 sides. In warmer or more humid regions the 

 estuaries were slowly filled in by the alluvia of 

 the streams or the sands of the sea, whereas the 

 fiords retained their original depth, often below 

 the bed of the neighbouring seas, which 

 accordingly advanced as the glaciers retired. 

 But since then the running waters and the 

 ocean have begun the vast geological work 

 of filling in these northern estuaries. The 

 rivers bring down their alluvia, depositing 



them in regular strata at the foot of the hills, while the sea precipitates, in 

 even layers of sand or mud, the detritus washed away by the waves. The work 

 of transformation has already made perceptible progress, and the old inlets have 

 disappeared along the south-west coast between Porsgrund and Stavanger 

 fiords. In this region, exposed to the southern suns and sheltered by the elevated 

 plateaux from the northern winds, the glaciei's retired much earlier than on the 

 west coast, and between the already effaced inlets of the extreme south and the 



p\ 



% 



EoFG 



Depth under 55 



Fathoms. 



