AND CIRQUES IN NORWAY AND GREENLAND. 1(51 



metres. 



Height of boulders in Tronfjeld 1600 



Height of the valley below 500 



Thickness of the ice at Tronfjeld 1100 



Height of boulder on Solen 1741 



Height of the country below 700 



Thickness of the ice at Solen 1041 



Height of erratic boulders on Suletind 1770 



Height of the lake of Utrovand below 986 



Thickness of the ice at Suletind 784 



Height of erratic boulders on Graagalten 756 



Height of the lake of Soneren at the foot 118 



Thickness of the glacier at Graagalten 638 



Height of erratic boulders on Skriru 900 



Height of the country below 250 



Thickness of the glacier at Skrim 650 



From the above we may draw the following picture of Norway 

 in the Glacial Epoch. The fjords were filled up by glaciers, which 

 attained a thickness of fromjlTOO to 1800 metres in the Sogne Fjord 

 and 1200 metres in the Hardanger ; the lateral fjords debouching 

 into these contained glaciers 800 metres thick, supplied from an 

 inland ice-sheet at least from 800 to 1100 metres thick. The icy 

 mass also extended over South-eastern Norway, where it was not less 

 than 600 or 700 metres thick. 



On the formation of Cirques and Valleys ending in Cirques. — In 

 those parts of Norway and Greenland which abound in small isolated 

 glaciers unconnected with any large ice-field, we find a great 

 number of recesses called Cirques, in Norsk " Botner " (bottoms). 

 These cirques are large spaces excavated from the solid rock, 

 bounded on three sides by an almost semicylindrical steep mountain- 

 wall, and with a tolerably flat floor. When the upper part of a valley 

 terminates in a cul-de-sac, so that its gently sloping bed comes to 

 an abrupt end against a steep mountain-wall, this too is called a 

 " Botn " (cirque). The latter kind of cirques may for convenience 

 be called " valley cirques," the former " mountain cirques," though 

 there is no essential difference between them. I shall describe the 

 mountain cirques first. 



The dimensions of these cirques are variable, their length and 

 breadth being often about the same and varying from some hun- 

 dred to some thousand metres. If the length greatly exceeds the 

 breadth, this passes into a " valley cirque." The mountain- walls 

 around the cirques vary from 50 to 400 metres in height, sometimes 

 being even as much as 700 metres ; and in Greenland, in the sound 

 between Upernivik Island and the mainland, I have seen a cirque 

 surrounded by an almost vertical wall, which rose nearly 1000 

 metres above the glacier which filled the cirque. The surface of 



