On the Physical Geography of Norway. 305 



comparable to Sulitelma, the greatest concentration of snowy 

 mountains in the north of Scandinavia, and consequently 

 colder in proportion. 



13. Lat. 70°*4. On the island of Seiland, level of perpe- 

 tual snow, according to Keilhau, 2880 Rhenish, or 2970 

 English feet ; according to Durocher, 886 metres, or 2910 

 English feet — a close agreement. 



We are at first surprised to find so few and little ac- 

 cordant determinations of the level of the snow line in 

 Norway, but it is easily explained. In Norway (unlike 

 Switzerland) the snowy regions are commonly remote from 

 inhabited valleys ; they are of difficult access, and are rarely 

 and casually visited by the curious traveller. The ascertain- 

 ment of permanent from occasional snow, always difficult, is 

 nearly impracticable except by continued and close observa- 

 tion, and it is not to be expected that the natives should be 

 able to give satisfactory information on a subject of so little 

 interest to them. 



The substance of the preceding observations may be re- 

 duced to this — 



First, The first four and the sixth observations tell us that 

 in lat. 60° to 62° the snow line at a short distance from the 

 coast may be considered to be at 4300 English feet, or there- 

 abouts. 



Secondly, In the same latitude, towards the centre of the 

 country, it rises (by the 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th observa- 

 tions) to 5300 feet. 



Thirdly, In lat. 67°, in the interior, it has fallen to 3500 

 feet, and is not much lower on insulated summits in lat. 70°, 

 though on the coast it falls to 2900. This trifling effect of 

 latitude is partly explained by the marked tendency of the 

 summer isothermal lines to run parallel to the peninsula of 

 Scandinavia. 



Von Buch has remarked, that in Norway and Lapland the 

 planes of vegetation of the pine and birch run nearly parallel 

 to the plane of perpetual snow — the intervals, as observed 

 by him at Alten, being given by the following table of limit- 

 ing heights of vegetation above the sea : — 



