NORWEGIAN GLACIERS. 95 



important investigations as to the flora of ttie western part of 

 the Jotunheim and the neighbourhood of the inner branches of 

 the Sognefjord, also directed attention to the fact that the gla- 

 ciers of those regions, during a period immediately previous to 

 that date, had somewhat decreased, a fact indicated by the termi- 

 nal moraines left, and by the vegetation on the surface of those 

 moraines. In 1864, Doughty relates concerning the Nigardsbræ, 

 the Faabergstolsbræ, the Lodalsbræ and the Trangedalsbræ, that 

 „these glacial outlets have all considerably diminished in modern 

 times, and are still diminishing." 



The facts stated above with regard to the glaciers of the 

 Jotunheim and the various offshoots of the Jostedalsbræ, have 

 also a parallel in the oscillation of the Glacier of Buer, an offshoot 

 of the Snow-field, Folgefon. Subsequently to the increase of that 

 glacier about the middle of the nineteenth century, as already 

 mentioned, a somewhat remarkable decrease seems to have taken 

 place, as stated by Sexe in 1864. At the same time the snow- 

 field of the Folgefon itself has also been subjected to a consider- 

 able decrease, the rock having in many places been uncovered. 



Extending our investigation of glacier oscillation to the north- 

 ern part of our country, we meet with a highly interesting fact 

 regarding the oscillation of the Glacier of Enga, an offshoot of 

 the Glacier of Svartisen. Sir Archibald Geikie, who visited this 

 glacier in the summer of 1865, on that occasion noted down a 

 rather remarkable morainic lake just in front of the glacier, but 

 in 1885 one of the peasants of Fonddal stated that „le lac mo- 

 rainique n'existerait que depuis trente ou quarante ans." If, there- 

 fore, this statement is to be trusted, it is an indication of an 

 almost contemporaneous decrease of glaciers in the northern and 

 southern part of our country. 



In his very interesting work upon the glaciers of the Joste- 

 dalsbræ, De Seue records a rather remarkable increase of glaciers 

 to have taken place in several branches of that extensive snow- 

 field in the years 1868 and 1869. What the duration of this period 



