170 AMUXD HELLAXD ON THE FJORDS, LAKES, 



but as this situation is not absolutely the same in all valleys, we 

 find some difference in their distances from the sea. Further, it is 

 evident that the glaciers had retired from many fjord-valleys dis- 

 tant from the mountain-region by the end of the Glacial epoch ; 

 and in these we only find terraces, not lakes and moraines, near the 

 sea. On the other hand, in some valleys the glaciers went further 

 out into the fjords, and deposited their moraine on the bottom of the 

 sea, so that the lake-basins are now pans of the fjord itself and 

 have no separate existence. 



We can constantly explain the Glacial phenomena of Xorway by 

 reference to Greenland. The ice in the latter country is not now 

 at its greatest extent ; so that Greenland at present affords us a 

 picture of Xorway about the end of the Glacial epoch, when the 

 glaciers in some cases extended out into the fjords, in others formed 

 the lakes mentioned above. So that, according to our theory, lake- 

 basins must exist in many places under the glaciers in the ice-fjords 

 of Greenland, if only the latter have been for a sufficient time in 

 their present position. It is, of course, very difficult, if not impos- 

 sible, to observe these basins ; but I can bring an instance from near 

 the ice-fjord of Torsukatak, which makes it probable that such basins 

 exist, and will appear when the glaciers retreat. The glacier in the 

 above fjord descends into the sea in four arms. The northern of 

 these is separated by a mountain-range from a valley which lies 

 symmetrically with them. In this there is at the present time no 

 glacier ; but a lake begins near the sea called Amitsok, at the side 

 of which are the remains of a lateral moraine, like those met with 

 along the glaciers of the ice-fjords. This moraine shows that the 

 valley has once formed a fifth arm of the glacier, which has now 

 disappeared, leaving a lake in its track. This lake is about 20 

 metres above the sea, and less than a kilometre from it. I do not 

 know its exact length, but think it is more than 7 kilometres. 



To return to Xorway. The mode of occurrence of many lakes in 

 South-eastern Xorway, if possible, still better illustrates their for- 

 mation. On the east side of the Christiania Fjord, from Moss to 

 Fredrikshald, and on the opposite side from Horten to Laurveg, lie 

 two rows of moraines ; these indicate a limit of the glaciation of 

 Xorway. While moraines in the narrow fjords in different valleys 

 are quite separated by high mountain-ranges, here, where the 

 ground is lower, they can be followed continuously over long dis- 

 tances. Thus the rows of moraines extend, with some interruptions, 

 for a length of 60 kilometres on both sides of the Christiania Fjord. 

 Behind these are sixteen lakes, ten on the east and six on the west 

 side of the fjord, lying on the line of the long moraines. I have 

 visited all, and can directly demonstrate that most of them are true 

 rock-basins. If, then, they are older than the Glacial epoch, it is a 

 strange thing that the ends of all lie in the lines of the moraine, that 

 the glacier advanced just as far as their southern ends, and that 

 their longer axes are perpendicular to the line of the moraine. The 

 phenomena are so regular that one might suppose that Professor 

 Ramsay had propounded his theory of the Glacial formation of lakes 



