392 Europe : — a popular Physical Sketch. 



therefore for this reason very cold climate, render them mostly 

 uninhabited, and journeys from the one side of the mountain 

 chain to the other, are often performed with great difficulty ; 

 the usual distance from the last fixed habitation on one side 

 amounts from 40 to 48 miles, or even more, to the nearest 

 inhabited place on the other side, and even where high- 

 roads traverse these table lands, the traveller is still obliged 

 to cross tracts composed of the most rugged and barren 

 rocks. That part of the road which runs along ' Dovre,' a 

 distance from 32 to 40 miles, has for this reason been pro- 

 vided with what is called in Norwegian ' Fjeldstuer' (i.e. 

 rock-chambers) for the accommodation of travellers, and the 

 change of post-horses, (' Skydsskifte.') On ' Filefield,'* 

 where the chain is unusually narrow, the breadth still 

 amounts to some eight miles. 



On the east side, the chain slopes very gently towards 

 the gulph of Bothnia, and its lower part terminates with) a 

 perfect plain. Side branches frequently form extensive trans- 

 versef valleys, such as the valleys of 'Herje,' * Oster,' 

 ' Guldbrand, ' ' Valders,' ' Hailing ;' often the whole chain 

 deviates laterally, forming tolerably flat tracts above, such 

 as ' Lapmarkerne' and ' Tellemarken,' which mean the differ- 

 ent varieties of surface, as the ' Dal,' (i.e. valley,) and ' Mark' 

 (i.e. field). The western side is very steep, and the deep nar- 

 row friths or inlets, like huge clefts cut into the solid rocks, 

 appear as substitutes for the valleys. To the traveller tra- 

 versing the mountain plains, these friths are very often not 

 perceptible till quite close, and then he may look down a 

 depth of several thousand feet, where small inhabited spots on 

 the banks, put him in mind of human dwellings. The rocks 



* The road from Christiania to Bergen traverses Filefield ; that from 

 Christiania to Drontheim runs over Dovre. 



f Valleys of the same direction as the mountain chain are called 

 longitudinal, whereas such as form a somewhat large angle with the 

 chain are denominated transverse. 



