722 



COL. II. W. EE1LDEN ON THE GLACIAL GEOLOGY [Nov. 1896, 



•<s> 





&C 

 £ 



perpendicular walls of rock on both 

 sides ; these, to the height of some 

 400 feet, are polished and grooved 

 by the action of ice, but the 

 mountain-peaks that rise above 

 the fiord show no signs of glacial 

 abrasion. Attention has been called 

 to this by earlier writers, notably 

 by the late J. F. Campbell * and 

 by Prof. Bonney. 2 Passing up 

 liaft Surd, amid some of the finest 

 coast-scenery of Norway, one cannot 

 fail to observe the traces on all 

 sides of former glacial action, espe- 

 cially on the eastern shores of the 

 channel. There nearly every valley 

 descending to the shore-line, now 

 bright with green birch-woods and 

 pastures, has the remains of great 

 moraines at its mouth. Farther 

 north, around Tromso, the signs of 

 recent elevation are common along 

 the shore-line, and so also the 

 signs of the retreat and disappear- 

 ance of glaciers which once filled 

 the valleys ; but I see no evidence 

 that the mountain-tops on the 

 mainland of this part of Norway 

 have ever been covered by an ice- 

 sheet, even at the time of their 

 maximum glaciation. 



The valley of Tromsodal, on the 

 mainland opposite the town of 

 Tromso, has a conspicuous raised 

 terrace (fig. 1) passing across its 

 mouth, and continued north and 

 south along the present coast-line. 

 This terrace must be \ mile wide at 

 the mouth of the valley, and there 

 brick- works are established. In 

 1894 a good section of this terrace, 

 some 20 feet in height, was ex- 

 posed, from which the clay used 

 in the works was being taken. 



1 ' Frost and Fire,' vol. i. (1865) nos. 

 136-137. 



2 Alpine Journal, vol. iv. pp. 430-436 ; 

 ' Do Glaciers Excavate ? ' Geogr. Journ. 

 vol. i. (1893) pp. 481-499; 'Ice-Work, 

 present and past,' p. 175, London, 1896. 



