EIVERS. 



99 



streams as the E,liÔQe or the Rhine, the relief of tlie couutry preventing the 

 development of great river basins. On the western side the Norwegian streams 

 soon meet the fiords after leaving the glaciers or snow-fields. On the east side 

 the Swedish rivers, being directed straight to the Baltic by the tilt of the land, are 

 unable to group themselves into one large water system. Those flowing to the 

 Gulf of Bothnia occupy nearly parallel valleys, all sloping south-eastwards in the 

 line of the former glaciers. In South Sweden the streams radiate in all directions 

 to the surrounding inlets, none of them, except the Gota, collecting the waters 

 coming both from the plains and the highlands. 



The largest Scandinavian river is the Norwegian Glommen, discharging into 

 the Gulf of Christiania, which also receives the Dramm, Avhose alluvia have already 

 filled a large portion of the great lake of Tyri-fiord. Nearly as large is the Gota, 



Fig. 50. — Lakes in South Nokavay. 

 Scale 1 : 470,000. 



5 Miles. 



thanks to the volume of water received by Lake Wener from the Klar-elf and its 

 other influents. But there was a time when the great Lake Fœmund, now 

 drainin^: southwards to the Kattes-at throu<2:h the Klar, drained throuofh the 

 Dal-elf south-east to the Gulf of Bothnia. The Fœmunsgrav, the old bed of the 

 river, is still visible 4 or 5 feet above the present level of the lake. But if 

 formerly deprived of the waters of Lake Fœmund, the Gota received from another 

 quarter all those of the Glommen, so that its volume was more than doubled. At 

 the foot of the hill on which stands the town of Kongsvinger, north-east of 

 Christiania, the Glommen now turns suddenly westwards ; but formerly it 

 continued its south-eastward course parallel with the Klar-elf, to Lakes Aklang 

 and Wener. During the heavy floodings a portion of the Glommen waters still 

 escapes by the old bed, and long narrow lakes preserving the meandering form of 



