222 DR JAMES GEIKIE ON 
finest mural cliffs occurring in Stromée, between Westmannshayn Fiord and 
Stakken. These cliffs range in height between 900 and 2000 feet, and at 
Mvling the nearly vertical walls of rock are even 2277 feet high. Osterde and 
the north-east islands show sea-cliffs which exceed 1000 feet in height, 
and similar lofty cliffs occur in Waagée, Sandée, Suderée, and all the other 
islets. 
3. Character of Valleys—The best defined valleys are often comparatively 
broad in proportion to their length. Followed upwards from the head of a 
fiord, they rise sometimes with a gentle slope until in the distance of two or 
three miles they suddenly terminate in a broad amphitheatre-like cirque. In 
many cases, however, they ascend to the water-parting in successive broad 
steps or terraces (Plate XITI. figs, 2 and 3),—each terrace being cirque-shaped, 
and framed in by a wall of rock, the upper surface of which stretches back to 
form the next cirque-like terrace, and so on in succession until the series 
abruptly terminates at the base, it may be, of some precipitous mountain, 
Occasionally the col between two valleys is so low and level that it is with some 
difficulty that the actual water-parting can be fixed. Such is the case with 
Kolfaredal between H6i and Leinum-mjavatn in Stromée, where a well-defined 
hollow passes right through the hills, leading from the head of Kollefiord to 
the sea at Leinum. The height of the flattened co/ in this hollow is only 259 
feet, yet it is overlooked by hills that exceed 2000 feet in elevation. <A similar 
long hollow crosses the same island between Saxen and Qvalvig. In Osteroe, 
likewise, a long low-level pass serves to connect the head of Fundingsfiord with 
that of Skaalefiord. In Sandée and Suderée, similar appearances may be 
noted. Besides these more or less well-defined valleys, the mountains 
frequently show isolated amphitheatric cirques. Sometimes these cirques open 
directly upon the sea, and may possibly represent the upper terminations of 
valleys, the lower portions of which have been removed by marine erosion. 
As examples, I may refer to the wide cirque (half mile in breadth and same in 
length) in Osterde, which is cut across by the sea-cliffs between Andafiord and 
Fuglefiord, and to the narrower but equally well-marked cirque-valley (one 
mile long by about 3th mile broad) which is abruptly truncated by the steep 
cliffs of Tiddnenaes in Suderde. Other isolated cirques, much smaller than 
these, but yet sometimes of considerable size, may often be noted on the 
mountain-slopes at heights of several hundred feet or even yards above the 
bottoms of the valleys into which they discharge their drainage. Good 
examples occur amongst the high grounds above Saxen, where the small upper 
cirques must be 1200 or 1400 feet above the broad valley into which their 
waters tumble down a series of cliffs and precipices. 
4, Lakes and Streams.—There are numerous lakes in the islands, but they 
are mostly of small size. The two largest occur in Waagde—one of them being 
