312 American Geologist. ^^y- ^^os 
FJORDS AND HANGING VALLEYS. 
By Warren Upham, St. Paul, Minn. 
From Denmark and Norway we receive the word fjord, 
designating any long and often branched inlet of the sea, in- 
closed in Denmark by shores of only moderate hight and gen- 
tle slopes, but in Norway having steep or occasionally precip- 
itous shores, frequently of mountain bights. 
If we retain the foreign spelling of the word, as here, 
instead of anglicizing it to fiord, its unique orthography tells 
the reader that it is of Scandinavian origin, bringing to mind 
the grand Norwegian fjords, the longest and deepest in the 
world, one of which, the Sogne fjord, extends more than a 
hundred miles inland, has many branches, is enclosed by cliffs 
and plateaus about a mile high, and has a maximum depth of 
4,080 feet beneath the sea level. The reader is also obliged by 
that original spelling to pronounce fjo7'd as a monosyllable, 
and learns that the ;' has the sound of our y as a consonant. 
Etymologically this word is nearly akin with the Scottish firth 
and frith ; and it is to be remarked that some of the fjords or 
friths of Scotland have low shores, as in Denmark, while many 
others are like the awe-inspiring fjords of Norway. 
Thus it is seen that the term fjord is well applicable to 
the inlets of the relatively low coasts of Maine, the eastern 
provinces of Canada and Newfoundland, and to Puget sound 
and all its branches, though immediately inclosed by land of 
no great altitude. Generally, however, this name, in most re- 
gions for which it is commonly adopted, as for the majestic 
Saguenay river, and in Labrador, Greenland, all our Artie ar- 
chipelago, and Alaska, on the coast of British Columbia, and 
in Patagonia and New Zealand, signifies a deep but narrow in- 
let of the sea, in a deep valley or gorge, with steep and very 
high shores. 
Continuing inland, th€ fjord, valley, gorge, or caiion, is oc- 
cupied by a stream, to which other streams are tributary from 
each side. Likewise the arms of the longer fjords, and the 
