300 On the Physical Geography of Norway, 



extent a most important barrier, which commonly separates 

 the most opposite states of weather. The rain at Bergen is 

 several times as great as that at Christiania. It falls chiefly 

 in winter — that of Christiania in summer. When it rains or 

 snows east of the Fille-field, it is most probably fine on the 

 west. A sort of intermediate climate occurs on the western 

 depression of the continent, but at some distance from the 

 coast, and offers an interesting peculiarity ; it is the climate 

 of the interior of the fiords, as on the Hardanger and Sogne 

 near Bergen, the Throndhj em-fiord above that town, and Kaa- 

 fiord, as contrasted with the climate of Hammerfest. In all 

 these cases the climate improves as we recede from the 

 shores, the corn ripens better, the mean temperature is 

 higher, and, at least in the far north, vegetation is more luxu- 

 riant. This arises mainly from the excessive amount of 

 rain, fog, and cloud, which lowers out of all proportion the 

 temperature of summer in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the coast. Bergen is universally known as one of the most 

 rainy spots in Europe, and its position manifestly resembles 

 that of Westmoreland, of Penzance, and of Coimbra, which 

 enjoy an unenviable pre-eminence in this respect. The ave- 

 rage fall of rain at Bergen exceeds 77 inches, while that at 

 Upsala, on the continental side of Scandinavia in the same 

 parallel, is only sixteen inches. At Bergen 21 per cent of 

 the annual fall is in the three summer months, whilst at Up- 

 sala it amounts to 33 per cent.* At Ullensvang, on an in- 

 terior branch of the Hardanger-fiord, though plunged in the 

 midst of lofty mountains, the climate has already greatly 

 improved. At the head of the Sogne-fiord it is still better. 

 The barley was ready there for the sickle, when it was hope- 

 lessly green near Bergen. In Finmarken, again, the interior 

 fiords, and the valleys connected with them, surpass incom- 

 parably in climate the islands and outlying portions of the 

 coast. The valleys of Bardu and Lyngen are the most 

 northern corn-lands in the world, and at Alten the Scotch 

 fir attains a height of 780 English feet above the sea, and 

 the birch of 1500 feet. At Hammerfest, which is an island 



* Schouw, Climat d'ltalie, pp. 170, 171. 



