164 On the Physical Geography of Norway. 



them for many many miles, did roads exist, and across which 

 the eye wanders for immense distances, overlooking entirely 

 the valleys, which are concealed by their narrowness, and in- 

 terrupted only by undulations of ground, or by sm.aH moun- 

 tains which rise here and therewith comparatively little pic- 

 turesque effect above the general level. 



These table-topped mountains are the Fields, or more pro- 

 perly the Fjelds, of Norway, which, in their less interrupted 

 or more elevated parts, have acquired specific names. They 

 have been very erroneously supposed by map-makers to form 

 a continued ridge serpentining through the country, though 

 preserving a general parallelism to the coast, of which the 

 chief (from north to south) are the Dovre-field, the Lange- 

 field, the Sogne-field, the Fille-field, and the Hardanger- field. 



The error in question is easily traced to the usual method 

 of constructing a map from rude and imperfect observations. 

 The river-courses are first determined with a certain ac- 

 curacy,* and from analogy (rather a precarious one, how- 

 ever) with other countries, the origin of these is traced to a 

 watershed or ridge, assumed to be comparatively narrow, 

 along which the chief summits are to be sought, and supposed 

 to be extended merely by spurs or lateral ranges of small 

 extent between the valleys. To such a theory the construc- 

 tion of the common maps of Norway may be easily traced, 

 and the tradition of this unbroken chain may be found in 

 nearly every map. 



Thus, the general surface of the country is in reality com- 

 posed of elevated and barren table-lands. The proportion of 

 arable land (land which might be tilled), to the entire extent 

 of Norway, is not, according to the competent authority of 

 Professor Munch, more than 1 to 10 ; and if we exclude a 

 few local enlargments of the plains near the capitals, it would 

 not even exceed 1 to 100. By a rude estimation on Professor 



* The river-courses preserve a surprisingly exact parallelism on the south- 

 eastern slope of the peninsula from the Skagerack to near the head of the 

 Gulf of Bothnia. The direction of these lines of fissure is about 30° with the. 

 meridian in Southern Norway, but above 40° in Lapland. In neither case, 

 probably, does it coincide with the direction of greatest declivity of the general 

 surface of the continent. 



