146 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 
of Kaupanger, 2,964 feet: [still, more than half a mile, 2,640 
feet, in depth]. The branch fiords are much narrower, but 
their depth of water is also very great. The Sogndal at 
its entrance, which is narrow, is 132 feet, but about mid- 
way it is 1,194 feet, thence becoming near its end 216 feet 
deep. The Lyster is at its entrance 2,170 feet [half 
a mile] deep; half-way, 1,176 feet; towards its end 276 
feet. Even in the Aardal and the Laerdal, which form 
the upper end of the Sogne, the sea in the former is 840 
feet, and in the latter 780 feet deep.’ 
In these varying depths may be found indications of an 
action of glaciers which well deserves study. 
Existing glaciers may be considered remains of a sheet of 
ice or snow, which, in the glacial era, and long after, 
covered extensively Northern Europe. Glaciers are now, 
and probably were then, in a state of continuous flux, 
flowing from a higher to a lower level, as does water, as 
does tar, as does honey, and as do many substances more 
tenacious than are they, whenever they are allowed so 
to gravitate. 
It may be asked how can a solid body like ice flow? 
And the answer is forthcoming. All matter, even the 
most solid and compact, is composed of minute particles 
of the substance kept together by mutual attraction, but 
not in actual contact. When the attracting force can 
only act within a very limited distance, though powerfully 
within that distance, the body is friable, easily broken, it 
may be easily shattered. Thus is it with glass, with 
sealing wax, with cast-iron; but there are also substances 
which, when warm, can be spread out in sheets, or drawn 
out in threads—the attracting force still keeping the 
particles together ia one mass, though individually to 
some extent dissevered; and even in their solid state 
they may be found to be within certain limits elastic, 
allowing of distension without destruction of the attracting 
power, which brings them into position again when the 
pressure by which the body may have been bent has been 
