38 AQUEOUS AGENCIES. 



The coast of Norway consists entirely of deep fiords alternating 

 with jutting headlands of hardest rock several thousand feet high. 

 Along this intricately-dissected coast there runs a chain of high, rocky 



Fig. 31. 



islands, which in an accurate map is scarcely distinguishable from the 

 coast itself, being separated only by narrow, deep fiords. Toward the 

 northern part of the coast the crest of the Scandinavian chain seems to 

 run directly along the jutting promontories of the coast-line, for these 

 headlands are the most elevated part of the country ; in fact, in some 

 parts it would seem that the original crest was at one time still farther 

 west, along the line of coast-islands. If so, then the sea has not only 

 carried away the whole western slope, but has broken through the main 

 axis, leaving only these isolated rocky islands as monuments of its 

 former position, and is even now carrying its ravages far inland on the 

 eastern slope. In the case of Norway, however, and probably in case 

 of nearly all bold, rocky coasts, the intricacy of the coast-line is not 

 due wholly or even principally to the action of waves and tides, but also 

 to other causes to which we shall refer hereafter. 



Transporting Power. — The transporting power of waves is immense- 

 ly great, often taking up and hurling on shore masses of rock hundreds 

 of tons in weight ; but, being entirely confined to the coast-line, the dis- 

 tance to which they carry is necessarily very limited. There are some 

 instances, however, of materials carried to great distances by the inces- 

 sant action of waves. Thus, according to Prof. Bache, coast-sand is 

 carried slowly farther and farther south by the action of waves, and 

 siliceous sand is found at Cape Sable on the extreme southern point of 

 Florida, although the whole Florida coast as far as St. Augustine is 

 composed of coral limestone alone. He accounts for this by supposing 

 that the trend of the United States coast is such that waves coming 

 from the east strike the coast obliquely and fall off toward the south, 



