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gracefully in the air, or gently grazing the face of
the rock. This absence of any hurry or violence
of proceeding in the downward course of these
waterfalls is so characteristic, so truly Norwegian,
that I will endeavour to explain it.
When a stone or other heavy body falls through
the air, the continuous pull of gravitation
accelerates its downward speed. The same is the case
with the plunging cascade of a river that is
precipitated in large quantity to a moderate depth ;
but with spray-falls, where the height is so great
as here or in the Romsdal, a curious modification
of the general law of acceleration of falling bodies
is observable. At the upper part of the fall the
water is a continuous stream ; presently this is
broken by the acceleration tearing the lower and
more rapidly moving portions from those above
them; lower down, as the acceleration proceeds
the collision between air and water breaks up still
further the detached fragments of the original
EI
stream, and this continues till all is pounded into
snowy spray. Every subdivision of the particles
of water exposes more and more surface to the
friction of the air, and this friction or resistance
of course goes on increasing with the increasing
velocity of downfall, until at last the resistance
of the air just balances the accelerating- force of
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