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with the west and north countries. A little to the east of, and below
these glens, and without doubt in connection with them, there now
always lie elongated lakes, often several in succession, developed in
an especially beautiful manner in Swedish Norrland, but also distinct
in Norway. One of the largest lakes in the country (Fæmunden
78 sq. miles, 2205 feet above the sea) belongs to this series.
We thus see, all over the country, peculiar forms that must
be due to the intense action of the glaciers on the earlier surface.
It would be difficult to point out any part of the country that
did not show unmistakable signs of ice erosion. The inland ice,
during the great glacial period, must have extended above even
the highest peaks in the interior of the country. During the last,
lesser glacial period, when the ends of the glaciers for a long
time came as far as the above-mentioned series of lakes at the
heads of the fjords, the higher mountains, at any rate on the
coast, and the highest peaks in the Jotunheimen, Troldheimen and
Rondane, have stood above the great glacier like nunataks, and
have thus not been subjected to the general grinding. They appear
to have been considerably affected by the natural forces, in a
different manner. Their surface is frequently broken up into loose
boulders, and covered with long trains of rocky débris. We also
constantly find them developed into characteristic Alpine forms.
Little glaciers in all the hollows gradually wear down into
semicircular corries (botner) which cut up the original rounded mountain
shapes into ridges and peaks. These «botner» can only be developed
above the snow-limit, outside the domain of the inland ice, or in
nunataks above the surface of the glacier. As the snow-limit is
lowest nearest the sea, the «botner» are found low down there.
Solitary Alpine forms, therefore, begin at a height of 1000 feet,
e. g. on the Romsdal coast (the Søndmøre Alps); but their lower
limit rises as the distance from the shore in a south-easterly
direction increases, up to 3000 feet in the beautiful peaks of the
Troldheimen, and 5000 feet at the axis of altitude in the wild
mountains of the Jotunheimen, where the «botn»- or cirque-glaciers
are actively at work to this day. Thus above these heights there
are Alpine forms, below them evenly rounded mountain shapes.
If we follow the coast northwards, the Alpine forms disappear
in the Trondhjem depression, only to reappear as soon as
Nordland begins. We here have the well known scenery which has
made the tour to the North Cape such a favorite one with tourists.
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