108 p. A. ØYEN. 



The most remarkable glacier, however, emanating from the 

 Snow-field of the Hardangerjökel is the Glacier of Rerabesdals- 

 skaaken, protruding into the Lakelet of Rembesdalsvand towards 

 the south-west. What makes this glacier especially interesting 

 is the fact of its damming up, on its right side, a small glacier 

 lake, Dæmmevand, marked with the letter D in the subjoined 

 sketch. 



There are traditions that the valley below the Lakelet of 

 Rembesdalsvand (R) has, from ancient times, now and then been 

 subjected to great inundations, much dreaded by the inhabitants 

 of the Valley of Simodalen that leads down to the Eidfjord. 

 The true cause of these inundations has long been recog- 

 nized to be the sudden overflow of the glacier-lake mentioned 

 above. Munch, in 1843, records an old tradition, according to 

 which the Lake of Dæmmevand is said of old to have overflowed 

 every twentieth year; but at the same time he states that no 

 outburst is said to have taken place since the year 1813. In the . 

 autumn of 1893 a report was spread that during the three pre- 

 ceding years, devastating inundations had repeatedly occurred, 

 and that the inundation of that autumn was of greater extention 

 than any previously experienced. 



According to traditions current among the peasants of the 

 adjacent districts, the Glacier of Rembesdalsskaaken, in the begin- 

 ning of the nineteenth century, had protruted so far into the 

 Lakelet of Rembesdalsvand as to fill up the upper half of that 

 lakelet. About 1860, however, the glacier had retired so far that 

 it protruded for only a short distance into the water of the lake- 

 let. As may be seen from the sketch also, the position of the 

 glacier was about the same in 1893. From these facts we might 

 draw the conclusion that this glacier had been nearly stationary 

 for more than thirty years, with perhaps a slight decrease. It 

 is not improbable, however, that a period of glacier advance 

 and succeeding decrease intervenes between the dates just men- 

 tioned. This supposition would, at any rate, be in perfect accor- 



