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GLACIERS OF ROMSDAL.
187
of which there are two very distinctly marked, hut
not so lofty as those in the other valleys before
mentioned.
Beside the snow patches there are Lilliputian glaciers
in abundance, where the whole history of glacier
formation is shown at a glance. There are the snow fields
above, filling a basin from which dark peaks arise; the
basin has a downward opening, or notch, leading to a
little steep, trough-like valley, that closes in below. In
the upper basin, the snow surface is thawed by the sun,
the water sinks into the spongy moss below, freezes
again on its way, and binds it all together as a seeming
solid, but capable of yielding to the pressure of the mass
above and the expansion of re-freezing; this pressure
forces it through the notch of the upper basin, into the
lower. As it passes over the bend from the lesser to
the greater declivity, it is split upon its surface by this
bending, and the blue crevices are formed. In
squeezing so forcibly through this opening it polishes its
sides, and the fragments of stone that are torn away
or fall upon it become bedded into the ice, and
when they reach the portion that slides upon the
rock, they groove it with parallel lines that will mark
the places where these glaciers have been, if in future
ages they should cease to exist.
There are other snow basins which fail to form true
glaciers, owing to the want of the trough-like valley
below that closes in at its lower part. Yet in these there
is evidently a downward flow, or advancement of the ice
and snow, which is forced through the notch; but this
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