84 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 
series of broken falls, spreading laterally as it descends, 
and rivetting the attention for a long while’ together in 
endeavouring to trace its subtile ramifications. The 
sound is rather a murmur than aroar, so divided are the 
streams, and so numerous the shelves of rock tipped with 
foam ; whilst a luxuriant vegetation of birch and alder 
overarches the whole, instead of being repelled by the 
wild tempest of air which accompanies the greater 
cataract. At other times single threads of snow-white 
water stretch down a steep of 2000 feet or more, connect- 
ing the fjeld above and valley below; they look so slender 
that we wonder at their absolute uniformity and perfect 
whiteness throughout so great a space—never dissipated 
in air, never disappearing under débris ; but on approach- 
ing these seeming threads we are astonished at their 
volume, which is usually such as completely to stop the 
communication from bank to bank. , 
‘The source of this astonishing profusion of water is to 
be found in the peculiar disposition of the surface of the 
country. The mountains are wide and flat, the valleys 
are deep and far apart. The surfaces of the former receive 
and collect the rain, which is then drained into the narrow 
channels of the latter; and as the valleys ramify little, but 
usually pursue single lines, and are wholly disconnected 
from the fjelds by precipitous slopes, it follows that the 
‘single rivers which ‘water those valleys represent the 
drainage of vast areas, and are supplied principally by 
streamlets which, having run ‘long courses over the fjelds, 
are at last precipitated into ravines in the form of cas- 
cades. The system might be represented in a homely 
way by great blocks of houses in an old-fashioned town, 
the roofs of which collect and transmit the rain-water by 
means of communicating gutters, until, on reaching. the 
street, the whole falls by means of open water-spouts, 
-flooding the waterways below. : 
‘But there is also another reason for this striking abun- 
dance of water. The fall of rain is large, if not excessive, 
over a great part of Norway. It is also, no doubt, greater 
