great elevation, especially the more northerly; thus the jagged peaks characteristic of Lofoten culminate at about 4000 ft. Hornelen, near the mouth of Nordfjord, 3000 ft. high, rises nearly sheer above the Fröjfjord, and vessels pass close under the towering cliff. Torghatten (“the market hat”), N. of Namsos, is pierced through by a vast natural tunnel 400 ft. above the sea; and Hestmandö (“horseman island”), on the Arctic circle, is justly named from its form. The dark blue waters of the inner leads and fjords are clouded, and show a milky tinge on the surface imparted by the glacier-fed rivers. Bare rock is the dominant feature of the coast and islands, save where a few green fields surround a farmstead. In the N., where the snow-line sinks low, the scenery at all seasons has an Arctic character.
Christiania Fjord, opening from the N. angle of the Cattegat and Skagerrack, differs from the great fjords of the W. Its shores are neither so high nor so precipitous as theirs; it is shallower, and contains a great number of little islands. From its mouth, round Lindesnæs, and as far as the Bukken Fjord (Stavanger) there are many small fjords, while Fjords. the skjærgaard provides an inner lead only intermittently. Immediately S. of Bukken Fjord, from a point N. of Egersund, the flat open coast of Jæderen, dangerous to shipping, fringing a narrow lowland abundant in peat-bogs for some 30 m., forms an unusual feature. Bukken Fjord is broad and island-studded, but throws off several inner arms, of which Lyse Fjord, near Stavanger, is remarkable for its extreme narrowness, and the steepness of its lofty shores. The Hardanger Fjord, penetrating the land for 114 m., is known to more visitors than any other owing to its southerly position; but its beauty is exceeded by that of Sogne Fjord and Nord Fjord farther N. Sogne is the largest and deepest fjord of all; its head is 136 m. from the sea, and its extreme depth approaches 700 fathoms. Stor Fjord opens inland from Aalesund, and one of its head branches, Geiranger Fjord, is among the most celebrated in Norway. Trondhjem Fjord, the next great fjord northward, which broadens inland from a narrow entrance, lacks grandeur, as the elevation of the land is reduced where the Trondhjem depression interrupts the average height of the plateau. The coast N. of Trondhjem, though far from losing its beauty, has not at first the grandeur of that to the south, nor are the fjords so extensive. The principal of these are Namsen, Folden and Vefsen, at the mouth of which is Alsten Island, with the mountains called Syv Söstre (Seven Sisters), and Ranen, not far S. of the Arctic circle. Svartisen sends its glaciers seaward, and the scenery increases in magnificence. Salten Fjord, to the N. of the great snow-field, is connected with Skjerstad Fjord by three narrow channels, where the water, at ebb and flow, forms powerful rapids. The scenery N. of Salten is unsurpassed. The Lofoten and Vesteraalen islands are separated from the mainland by the Vest Fjord, which is continued inland by Ofoten Fjord. If these two be considered as one fjord, its length is about 175 m., but the actual penetration of the mainland is little more than a fifth of this distance. The main fjords N. of Vesteraalen have a general northerly direction; among them is Lyngen Fjord near Tromsö, with high flanking cliffs and glaciers falling nearly to the sea. Alten Fjord is remarkable for the vegetation on its shores. From Lofoten N. there is a chain of larger islands, Senjen, Kvalö, Ringvadsö, Sorö, Stjernö, Seiland, Ingö and Magerö. These extend to the North Cape, but hereafter the skjærgaard ends abruptly. The coast to the E. is of widely different character; flat mountain wastes descend precipitously to the sea without any islands beyond, save Vardö, with two low islets at the E. extremity of Norway. The fjords are broader in proportion to their length. The chief are Porsanger, Laxe and Tana, opening N., and Varanger opening E. N. of this fjord the land is low and the landscape monotonous; on the S. a few island and branch fjords break the line of the shore.
Stavanger Fjord has an extreme depth of 380 fathoms; Hardanger Fjord 355, Sogne Fjord 670, Nordfjord 340, Trondhjem Fjord 300, Ranen Fjord 235, Vestfjord 340, Alten Fjord 225, and Varanger Fjord 230. Marine terraces are met with in the E. of the country, and near Trondhjem, at 600 ft. above sea-level; and they are also seen at a slighter elevation at the heads of some western fjords. Moreover, at some points (as on the Jæderen coast) “giant kettles” may be observed close to sea-level, even below the level of high tide; and these glacial formations indicate the greater elevation of the land towards the close of the Glacial epoch. Former beach-lines are most commonly to be observed in northern Norway (e.g. in Alten Fjord), and in some cases there are two lines at different altitudes. The land above the raised beach is generally bare and unproductive, and human habitation tends to confine itself in consequence to the lower levels.
Hydrography.—In S.E. Norway there are long valleys, carrying rivers of considerable size, flowing roughly parallel but sometimes uniting as they approach the sea. The Glommen, rising N. of Röros in Aursund Lake, and flowing with a southerly curve parallel with the frontier for 350 m. to the Skagerrack, is the largest river in the Scandinavian peninsula. Its upper middle valley is called Österdal,[1] the richest timber district in Norway. Its drainage area is 16,000 sq. m. Seven miles above its mouth it forms the fine Sarpsfos, and not far above this it traverses the large lake Öieren. A right bank tributary, the Vormen, has one of its sources (under the name of Laagen) in Lake Lesjekogen, which also drains in the opposite direction by the Rauma. The stream, after watering Gudbrandsdal, enters Mjösen, the largest lake in Norway. It is 60 m. long, but, like most of the greater Norwegian lakes, has no great breadth. It has, however, an extreme depth of 1500 ft. The Drammen river, which enters a western arm of Christiania Fjord below the town of Drammen, is the common outlet of several large rivers. The Hallingdal river drains the valley of that name, and forms Lake Kröderen, which is connected with the Drammen river by the Snarum. A short distance above the junction the Drammen flows out of Lake Tyrifjord, 50 sq. m. in area, into which flow the united waters of the Rand, from the valley district of Valdres, and the Bægna. The whole basin of the Drammen has an area of 6600 sq. m. The rivers between Christiania Fjord and Lindesnæs preserve the characteristics of those of the Glommen and Drammen systems. They rise on the Hardanger Vidda or adjacent uplands. The most important are the Laagen (to be distinguished from the river of that name in Gudbrandsdal), draining the Numedal; the Skien, the Nid and the Otter. Lakes are very numerous, the chief, beyond those already named, being Nordsjö on the Skien river, Tinsjö in the same system, which receives the river Maan, famous as forming the Rjukanfos (smoking fall) of 415 ft., and Nisservand on the Nid. The larger lakes lie, with a certain regularity, at elevations about 400 ft. above the sea, and it is considered that their basins were the heads of fjords when the land lay at a lower level, and were formed during an earlier glacial period than the present fjords. The great Lake Fæmund, lying E. of the Glommen valley and drained by the river of the same name, which becomes the Klar in Sweden, to which country it mainly belongs, is similar in type to the lakes of the northern highlands of Sweden. The streams of the coast of Jæderen reach the sea through sluggish channels, brown with peat.
Not only do the valleys of the W. far surpass in beauty those of the S. and E., but they carry streams of much greater volume in proportion, owing to the heavier average rainfall of the W. slope. The first to be noted is that of the Sand or Logen river, a brilliant, rapid stream, famous for its salmon-fishing, which debouches at Sand into Sands fjord. The valley which opens from Odde at the head of a branch (Sör fjord) of Hardanger Fjord, is noted as containing two of the finest waterfalls in Norway. The one, Lotefos (which is joined by the smaller Skarsfos), is a powerful cataract following a tortuous cleft. The other, Espelandsfos, is formed by a very small stream; it falls quite sheer and spreads out like a fine veil. The only other considerable river entering Hardanger Fjord is the Bjoreia, with its mouth at Vik in Eidfjord. On this stream is the magnificent Vöringsfos. Lesser streams within the basin of the Hardanger form the Skjæggedal and several other beautiful falls. From Hardanger N. to Romsdal the streams of the W. slope are insignificant, but there are several splendid valleys, such as the sombre Nærödal, which descends to the Næro branch of Sogne Fjord, or the valleys which sink S. and N. from the Jostedalsbræ to the head branches of Sogne Fjord and Nordfjord respectively. Above those of Nordfjord is a series of lakes, Olden, Loen and Stryn, whose milky waters are supplied almost directly from the Jostedal glaciers, while above Eidsfjord a corresponding trough contains Lake Hornindal. The next important valley is the Romsdal, the stream of which, the Rauma, forms the W. outlet of Lake Lesjekogen, as the Laagen forms the E. This lake, which lies 2011 ft. above sea-level, is the most remarkable example of an indefinite watershed to be found in S. Norway. N. from Romsdal the Driva debouches into Sundals Fjord, while the Orkla, draining Orkedal, the Gula draining Guldal, and the Nea or Nid, draining Lake Selbu, and
- ↑ The middle and upper parts of many yalleys in Norway are known by different names from those of the rivers which water them, and such names may extend in common usage over the district on either side of the valley.
