645 
of Edinburgh, Session 1865 - 66 . 
of gneiss, sometimes massive and jointed, sometimes fissile and 
flaggy, with a strike towards W. 15"^ S. The extent to which the 
higher portions have suffered from tlie disintegrating effects of the 
weather is remarkable. The gneiss is split up along its joints 
into large blocks, which lie piled upon each other in heaps of 
angular ruin. We noticed one or two masses which differed in 
lithological character from the rocks around; these may possibly 
have been ice-borne from some of the neighbouring eminences. 
On reaching a point 2700 feet above the fjord, our further passage 
was arrested by a narrow, shattered, knife-edge of gneiss, along' 
which it was impossible to advance. But from this elevated point 
we could judge of the general aspect of the great snowy table- 
land of the Svartisen, which was sloping towards us, while the two 
glaciers were spread out as in a plan beneath. 
The branch of the Holands Fjord, which opposite to the hamlet 
of Fondalen, strikes off to the north-east for seven or eight miles, is 
bordered on the south side, and closed in at its further end, by a 
range of steep, almost precipitous, walls of rock, the summits of 
which are on a level with, and indeed form part of the great table- 
land. Here, as in so many other parts of Norway, we are reminded 
that the fjords are, after all, mere long sinuous trenches, dug deeply 
out of the edge of a series of elevated plateaux. And, looking up 
to the crest of these dark precipices, we see the end of this snow- 
plain peering over, and sending a stream of blue glacier ice down 
every available hollow. We counted seven of these tiny glaciers, 
exuding like tears from under the snow, and creeping downward 
under the sombre cliffs of gneiss. None of them comes much below 
the snow line, and none, of course, reaches the sea. The largest of 
them is near the end of the fjord, and appears as a broken, crevassed 
mass of ice, moulded as it were over the steep hill side, and, when 
seen from below, seeming about to slip off and plunge into the 
fjord. Fragments of it are continually breaking away, and rolling, 
with the noise of thunder, and clouds of icy dust, down the shelving 
sides of the mountains. These glaciers are, for the most part, the 
icy drainage of the snow-field. But there are one or two lying in 
corries, and quite detached from the main snow-field, though pro- 
bably connected with it in winter. 
We left this delightful fjord not without regret, and catching 
