CLIMATE. 



105 



Cape ; iu summer and winter they blow in the opposite direction, favouring 

 the traffic between Hammerfest and Christiania. They are otherwise always 

 stronger along the west coast than in the interior, and the storms, frequent in 

 winter, rare in summer, burst with great fury down the mountain valleys facing 

 the Atlantic. Near Stavanger, at the entrance of Lyse-fiord, flashes of lightning 

 accompanied by thunder are occasionally emitted from a bluff 3,000 feet above 

 the sea. This happens only w^hen the wind is from the south-east, and meteoro- 



Fig. 53. — Isothermal Lines fou the Year. 

 According to Mohn. 



E of Gr 



legists have hitherto been unable to determine the atmospheric conditions under 

 which the phenomenon takes place. 



The warm winds also supply an abundant rainfall, which, however, is very 

 unequally distributed over the peninsula. In the western islands, and especially 

 the Lofoten group, it rains on an average every other day, and at Bergen, 

 on the south-west coast, the full amounts to 71 inches in the year. But 

 beyond the glaciers and snow-fields the average is not more than 39 inches. 



