414 



M. JEFFERSON GLACIAL EROSION IN THE NORTHFIORD 



head lie close under the edge of the ice, though themselves only 150 feet 

 above the sea, amid scenery that Eichter has called the most characteristic 



in Norway. 



I did not find the North- 

 fiord the steep-sided canyon 

 that I expected. The country 

 about it is high— 3,000, 4,000, 

 and 5,000 feet above the water. 

 The water is deep, in some 

 places 1,800 feet, and the 

 width is hardly so great as 3 

 miles anywhere in the 60 miles 

 of length. The side slopes, 

 however, are rarely more than 

 30 degrees. The appearance 

 is of mountain rather than of 

 canyon scenery. This is typ- 

 ically shown by figure 2, plate 

 40, looking out into the fiord 

 from its head at Loen. The 

 same scenery characterizes the 

 other two great fiords, Sogne 

 and Hardanger. 



The Northfiord has no 

 walls of rocks, rising steeply, 

 smoothed and striated by the 

 ancient glaciers. Clifl:s are 

 seen, but they are not charac- 

 teristic. At the head of the 

 fiord, however, its valley forks 

 and leads back some 15 miles 

 along the Olden and Loen 

 lakes in gorges of astonishing 

 depth and steepness of roclcy 

 wall. Here slopes of 70 and 

 80 degrees are frequent under 

 the valley shoulder. The cross- 

 I ^section here excels that of the 

 Colorado canyon in narrow- 

 ness and depth. The ice ac- 



-West Norniay and the Three great i ,- jt is\ t j. j i 



p^^y^g cumulations oi the Jostedal 



FIGDRE 1.- 



