AND CIRQUES IN NORWAY AND GREENLAND. 173 



quartzose slates ; further down there is gneiss and gabbro ; then at 

 the mouth a conglomerate. The fjords in Greenland cut through 

 both the basalt and the Azoic rocks. The large Waigat Fjord, 

 which is a continuation of the present ice-fjord of Torsukatak, is 

 surrounded by rocks of Cretaceous and Miocene age, which are capped 

 by an enormous sheet of basalt ; and the structure of the two sides 

 of the fjord is symmetrical. Thus the erosion of the fjord must be 

 posterior to the Miocene period ; for, at Atanekerdluk, on the very 

 side of the fjord, occur the well-known Miocene fossils ; and as the 

 great ejections of basalt are still later than these, but older than the 

 fjords, the latter must be of very recent date. 



Fjords are always numerous along the same coast-line. This 

 might be deduced from the theory of their glacial formation. A 

 great ice-sheet covering the interior of Norway or Greenland 

 could not discharge its ice by one or a few glaciers only, but would 

 require many of these, and along the whole coast-line. Hence the 

 fjords are numerous along the coast, and so also are the lakes. The 

 glaciers which formed them must have been thick enough to reach 

 the bottoms of the lakes and, unless the land lay higher than now, 

 the bottoms of the fjords as well ; that this was the case has already 

 been shown. If, then, the glaciers during the Glacial epoch were 

 able to form fjords and lakes, those which now exist must also be 

 able to scoop out the ground beneath them ; and if they have been 

 at work long enough, the depressions formed by them must be found. 

 We have already pointed out that cirques occur near modern 

 glaciers, being recesses formed by them. As fjords and lakes are 

 only associated with the old glaciers, so the cirques are confined to 

 small isolated modern glaciers. When we regard the great effects 

 produced by these small glaciers, the enormous erosion of these 

 ancient and thick glaciers becomes less surprising. The Norway 

 glaciers proceeded from an extensive inland ice-sheet ; if, then, the 

 valleys and the fjords result from the erosion of ice or of water, it 

 follows that they must start from the highest part of the country, 

 and on the whole increase in breadth and depth in proportion to the 

 increase of the glaciers ; that is, we must be able to trace up a fjord 

 through branch-fjords, fjord -valleys, and branch-valleys to remote 

 glens in the mountains. The Norway fjords can be shown by 

 numerous examples to satisfy this requirement. The Sogne Fjord is 

 an excellent instance ; it branches off, as may be easily seen, into 

 six large tributary fjords, every one of which is continued by a 

 fjord- valley ; this is formed by other valleys into which little 

 tributary glens debouch. Further, if these fjords and valleys are 

 formed by the erosion of ice or water, their breadth and depth must 

 be in proportion to the districts which once fed their glaciers and 

 now feed their rivers. On comparing the limits of different fjords 

 and valleys along the watershed, it is, on the whole, remarkable 

 how their dimensions show a dependence on their districts of rain- 

 fall. As these increase, so do the fjord-valleys. I do not mean, 

 indeed, that the area of a transverse section through a valley can be 

 connected by an empirical formula with the area of the district ; for 



