172 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 
amid all this savage sublimity there are rich substantial 
farms. These farms are due to the table-land of the 
terraces, of which there are two very distinctly marked. 
Besides the snow patches there are Lilliputian glaciers 
in abundance, where the whole history of glacier formation 
is shown at a glance. There are the snow-fields above 
filling a basin, from which dark peaks arise; the basin has 
a downward opening, a notch leading to a little steep 
trough-like valley that closes in below. Inthe upper basin 
the snow surface is thawed by the sun, the water sinks 
into the spongy snow below, freezes again on its way, and 
binds it all together as a seeming solid, but capable of 
yielding to the pressure of the mass above, and the expan- 
sion of refreezing; this pressure forces it through the 
notch of the upper basin into the lower. As it passes 
over the bend from the lesser to the greater declivity it is 
split upon its surface by this bending, and the blue 
crevasses are formed. In squeezing so forcibly through 
this opening it polishes its rocky sides, and the fragments 
of stone that are torn away, or that fali upon it, become 
bedded into the ice, and when they reach the portion that 
slides upon the rock they groove it with parallel lines, 
which will mark the place where these glaciers have been 
if in future ages they should cease to exist. 
‘There are other snow basins which fail to form true 
glaciers, owing to the want of the trough-like valley below, 
that closes in at its lower part. Yet in these there is 
evidently a downward flow, or alvancement of the ice and 
snow, which is forced through the notch; but this uotch 
communicating with a long straight trough like a water 
gully, the foremost of the advancing mass bends over until 
it becomes detached, and then forms an avalauche instead 
of a glazier. Several of these small avalanches came down 
during my walk. I mistook the first for a water cascade, 
until its cessation, and the thundering rumble which fol- 
lowed undeceived me. 
‘In these I found an explanation of the snow patches 
nearly level with the corn fields; tor each of the aval- 
