NOEWEGIAN GLACIERS. 81 



had increased about sixty-three metres in length, and also con- 

 siderably in breadth. The farm of Nigard was destroyed on this 

 occasion. The increase of this glacier seems to have continued 

 for several years following, but from the year 1748, a somewhat 

 slow decrease was noticed. Tradition also records a similar 

 increase of the glaciers of Bjørnesteg and Suphelle. In 1870 

 De Seue states that „le glacier de Boium a depuis longtemps 

 été en retraite. D'après des relations qui ne sont cependant peut- 

 être pas bien authentiques la diminution pendant les 150 der- 

 nières années a été de 600 m. environ." And even more remark- 

 able is the fact stated by the same author : „II parait, que le 

 glacier d'Aabraekke ne s'est présenté comme glacier de premier 

 ordre que depuis 150 ans. Son mouvement progressif doit alors 

 avoir été assez rapide, et en s'avançant il a ravagé une grande 

 partie des champs cultivés ou cultivables, à cause de quoi les 

 impôts de la propriété d'Aabraekke et de plusieurs autres terres 

 ont été considérablement abaissés". 



An account of the Folgefon, reported by Hertzberg, tends 

 to demonstrate the very same phenomenon, excepting only, that 

 the rather slow increase had in this case been of a more contin- 

 uous character. 



Belonging to the very same period of oscillation, but of a 

 somewhat earlier date — about the year 1720 — is a destruc- 

 tive increase of the glaciers of Holand Fjord. 



Unlike this premature increase of the glaciers of Holand Fjord, 

 we meet, in the neighbourhood of Lyngen Fjord, with a delay of 

 the period of oscillation, as the Glacier of Strupen, according to 

 traditions recovered by Yngvar Nielsen, probably originated 

 somewhat after the middle of the eighteenth century. 



Not only is the fact of a general and active increase of 

 glaciers in our country about the middle of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury Hkely to attract attention, but as a climatic phenomenon of 

 great importance, it is very interesting to note that the above- 

 mentioned increase is preceded by a period in which the glaciers 



Nyt Mag. f. Naturv. XXXIX, I. 6 



