NORWEGIAN GLACIERS. 113 



Though only a shght indication is to be traced, in this case, of 

 the oscillation of glaciers, it is interesting to compare this pheno- 

 menon with the almost smiultaneous, strongly-marked variation 

 of the curves representing the oscillation of glaciers, both in the 

 region of the Folgefon and in the region of the Jostedalsbræ. 



In the summer of 1891, the Glacier of Langedal was found 

 to hold a stationary position. During the summer of 1893, the 

 Glacier of Steindal (near Tveraadal „Church", Tveraadalskirken) 

 was decreasing, but, among the large stones and blocks just in 

 front of the glacier, a great quantity of heather was found to 

 have been buried beneath the glacier during its last advance. 

 The well-preserved condition of the stalks of the heather, how- 

 ever, proved that- this advance could not have been of any long 

 duration, nor could it belong to any remote period. It is there- 

 fore most probable that this advance of the Glacier of Steindal 

 had occurred during some years immediately preceding the year 

 1893. In the year 1894, an overflow of the Upper Lake of 

 Mjölkedal is reported to have taken place, accompanied by the 

 usual catastrophe of inundation. It might in this case seem 

 superfluous to direct attention to the remarkable coincidence be- 

 tween the phase of oscillation marked by the dates just men- 

 tioned, and the variation of glaciers as represented by the four 

 curves given above in a special plate. 



Still more recently, however, we have, witnessed similar 

 phenomena. Thus in 1897, the Sportegbræ, between Lyster and 

 Jostedal, was stated to be increasing, while at the same time 

 a general decrease was reported to prevail in the Jotunheim. In 

 the year just mentioned, an enthusiastic mountaineering tourist 

 even used the expression that „the glaciers were suffering from 

 consumption". His being a physician will account for the rather 

 curious comparison. 



The year 1898 seems to have brought about a slight change 

 of phases in the oscillation of glaciers, at any rate, in the western 

 part of the Jotunheim. Anfin Vetti has kindly informed me 



Nyt Mag. f. Naturv. XXXIX, IL. 8 



