CHAPTER XVIII. 
VALLEYS. 
DescenDiING from the high-lying plateaux with their 
snow-fields and glaciers, and passing saeters scattered 
among the hills, we find we are brought by a succession 
of valleys towards the coast. As we journey adown these 
valleys it may occur to us that the origin of them we 
have seen in the apparent level of the fjelds from which 
we have come. 
Of the plateau of Southern Norway, Dr Broch writes: 
‘From this plateau issue all the great water-courses and 
rivers of Southern Norway. They take their rise in part 
from marshes, in part from the névés, in part from deep 
basins without any apparent affluents, in part from lofty 
eminencies where the sources are unseen, but where are 
constantly being condensed the currents of humid air 
coming from the west. At their birth the rivers wind 
about on the plateau in innumerable small tortuous fur- 
rows, which go from pool to pool, from hollow to hollow, 
from lakelet to lakelet. Having attained mediocre develop- 
meat, they rush along in sinuosities from pond to pond, 
and at length from lake to lake. These reservoirs follow 
in succession, like strings of pearls, the smaller they are 
the closer are they together. The more the land is cut 
up, the deeper also are the waters, and in general the 
more restricted in size. And it is no small portion of the 
area of the plateau which is covered with stagnant water 
which, as do also the running waters, abound in fishes and 
frogs.’ 
These water-courses are incipient valleys—they are 
valleys in the plateaux—valleys which may yet become in 
