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expanses’), and in the N. part of the peninsula Kjeler
(‘mountain-ranges), and from it rise at intervals rounded and occasionally
pointed peaks of considerable height.
The Mountains are composed almost entirely of primary rocks,
presenting nearly the same form as when originally solidified, and
rarely overlaid with more recent formations, so that for the
geologist they possess the charm of the most hoar antiquity. These
primary rocks consist of granite, gneiss, mica, horneblende slate,
qnarzite, clay slate, limestone, and dolomite, disposed in the form
of strata, corresponding with which are occasional well-defined
layers of more recent slate-formations and particularly of
limestone. At places, notably in the Romsdal, or Valley of the Rauma,
the gneiss, the oldest of these rocks, towers in most imposing
pinnacles, 5000-6000 ft. in height, unencumbered by any later
formations. That valley extends from the Moldefjord to the S.E.,
intersecting the pure gneiss rock, which rises on each side in almost
perpendicular cliffs. “2000-3000 ft. in height, and is afterwards
prolonged by the Gudbrandsdal descending to Lake Mjescn. In
grandeur of rock-scenery, and in the purity of its formation, this
magnificent valley is hardly inferior to the far-famed Y’osemite
Valley of the Sierra Nevada in California.
About the year 1840 rocks of the Silurian Formation were
discovered by geologists in the vicinity of the Christiania Fjord, and
since that date other deposits of that period have been found in
Skane, Western Gotland, the island of Gotland, Herjeådalen, and
Jemteland in Sweden, and also on the banks of Lake Mjesen and
in Throndhjems Stift in Norway, but nowhere of great extent. The
largest Silurian basin in the peninsula is that of the Storsjö in
Jemteland, a lake of 25$0 Engl. sq. M. in area.
One of the most instructive sections of the country is formed
by the route from Sundsvall in Sweden to Östersund on the Storsjö
and Throndhjem in Norway. The primitive crystalline rocks of
Jemteland are first replaced by limestone, extending to the E.
bank of the lake, where the Silurian formations begin. These
stretch westwards to the great mountain backbone of Sweden and
Norway. On this route rises Areskutan, the highest mountain in
Sweden (p.372), part of the base of which on the E. and \V. sides
belongs to the Silurian formation, while the primary rocks,
consisting of quartzite, horneblende. mica-slate, and gneiss, protrude
through it all the way to the summit. From this vantage-ground
we obtain an excellent idea of the character of the Scandinavian
mountains. Many of the hills, rounded and worn by glacier-action,
are almost entirely bare, or clothed only with lichens [Cetraria
rucutlata nividis, Cronicularia ochroleuca, etc.), and present an
exceedingly sombre and dreary appearance. The slopes of the
intervening basins are often well wooded, but the lower plateaux
are mainly covered with vast tracts of lake and marsh.
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