194 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 
sea; and after this was done, the whole valley, mountains, 
river, and its deposits were all uplifted by the fiery forces 
within the earth, which battle against the working of the 
waters outside, raising new mountains while the waters 
wear the old ones down. Such an uplifting would lengthen 
the journey of the river, as the sea rolled back from the 
uplifted land. In its new course the river would cut 
through the soft plain it had formerly deposited on the 
bottom of the ancient fiord, and continue cutting down till 
it reached nearly the level of the sea; and thus the depth 
of the cutting would measure the amount of uplifting. 
‘Throughout nearly the whole of to-day’s walk—about 
twenty-five miles—terraces formed of alluvium were 
visible. In some parts the river flows at the foot of a steep 
bank of even slope, above three hundred feet high, the top 
of which isa cultivated or wooded level; at other parts there 
are several step-like terraces, parallel roads, as they are 
called in Scotland. Near to Medhaus station I counted 
five of these, one above the other, and perfectly parallel. 
From the course of the river, and configuration of the 
valley, I suspect that these terraces have been formed in an 
estuary which has been rendered high and dry by the up- 
lifting of the land. If so all the neighbouring valleys that 
carry considerable rivers into the sea should present similar 
phenomena, more or less distinctly marked.’ That this 
is the case with some of them,I knew from reading the 
accounts of other travellers. It is the general opinion of 
geologists that the whole of Scandinavia has been uplifted 
at a geologically recent period. 
