539 
of Edinburgh^ Session 1865 - 66 . 
At the head of the valley a small glacier descends from the snow- 
field of Svartisen. There could be no better locality for studying 
the gradual diminution of the glaciers, and for learning that it 
was land-ice that filled the Norwegian fjords, over-rode the lower 
hills and mountains, and went out boldly into the Atlantic and 
Arctic Sea. The Holands Fjord runs, as I have said, approxi- 
mately east and west, and this short narrow valley descends from 
the south. The fjord was filled with ice, and is therefore polished 
and striated along the line of its main trend. The valley of 
Fondalen was likewise filled with ice, moving down to join the 
mass in the fjord; and its rocks, too, are striated in the length 
of the valley, or from south to north. The moraine of Fondalen 
is a proof that a glacier once descended to the Holands Fjord at 
that point. Farther evidence is found in the fact, that the sides 
of the valley are ground and striated for 700 feet and more above 
its bottom. Moreover, these polished and scored rocks can be 
traced up to and underneath the glacier. I crept for some yards 
under the ice, and found the floor of gneiss on which it rested 
smoothly polished and covered with scorings of all sizes, exactly 
the same in every respect as those high on the sides of the 
valley, in the fjord below, and away on the outer islands and 
skerries. Over this polished surface trickled the water of the 
melted ice, washing out sand and small stones from under the 
glacier. 
We climbed the steep eastern side of the valley above the foot 
of the glacier, and found the hummocks of gneiss wonderfully gla- 
ciated up to a height of fully 700 feet. The gnarled crystalline 
rock has been ground away smoothly and sharply, so as to show its 
twisted foliation, as well as the patterns of a marble, are displayed 
on a polished chimney-piece. Even vertical or overhanging faces 
of rock are equally smoothed and striated. Many of the roches 
moutonnees are loaded with perched blocks of all sizes, up to masses 
30 or 40 feet long. Above the limit to which we traced the work 
of the ice, the rocks begin to wear a more rugged surface, until 
along the summit of the ridges they rise into serrated crests and 
pinnacles. This rougher outline is, of course, the result of atmo- 
spheric waste, guided by the geological structure and chemical com- 
position of the rocks. 
