NORWEGIAN GLACIERS. 115 



about one hundred metres farther up, seems about to appear in 

 the same manner. Mr. Elvesæter, moreover, makes the sugges- 

 tion that the comparison of the Jotunheim with a waste of snow 

 and an icy desert is no longer applicable; as regards the moun- 

 tains in the neighbourhood of the Lakes of Gjendin and Bygdin 

 it would be a far more fitting comparison to regard them as 

 mountain wilds covered with burnt grass and brownish stones. 



Last September Ole Vole, the guide of Gjendeboden (in the 

 central part of the Jotunheim) informed me that in the summers 

 of 1898 and 1899 he had observed several mountain tarns that 

 partly retained their ice-cover throughout the season ; but during 

 the present summer of 1900, not a single tarn was observed to 

 retain any part of its ice-cover. Ole Vole further states that 

 the glaciers observed by him had all of them been decreasing 

 during the present summer. The Upper Lake of Mjölkedal, during 

 this last season, had an outlet towards the Lower Lake of 

 Mjölkedal. 



In the eastern part of the Jotunheim, in the neighbourhood 

 of our two giant summits, the Galdhötind and the Glitretind, the 

 decrease of glaciers seems, even during recent years, to have 

 been fairly continuous, according to statements made by Knud 

 Vole, the well-known guide at the alpine station of Juvvashytten. 

 The only phenomenon, however, to be noticed in the summer 

 of 1898, was that the Lake of Juvvand during that season did 

 not get rid of its ice-cover. Knud Vole, however, has kindly 

 informed me that in this region, during the last two years, 1899 

 and 1900, there has been a rapid decrease of glaciers going on. 

 During these two years, there has been only a small down-fall 

 of snow in winter, and the summers have been unusually hot. 

 The result as to the variation of glaciers has been rather marked. 



It is very interesting to compare the oscillation of glaciers 

 in the Jotunheim during the last five years with the curves repre- 

 senting the oscillation of glaciers on both sides of the Jostedals- 

 bræ during the same time. A phenomenon of great importance 



