remarkably low; but otherwise the islands exhibit a chain of granite peaks to be counted in hundreds, strangely characteristic with their jagged, fantastic outlines, and towering to a height of from 2000 to 3500 feet above the level of the sea. This truly alpine scenery is rendered the more imposing in character by the fact of its rising directly from the sea. The Lofotens are connected on the north with the group of islands called Vesteraalen, which, in their southern parts, fully equal the Lofotens in grandeur. Within these groups of islands lies the largest island in Norway, Hindöen (area, 865 square miles), with the lofty peak, Mösadlen. From the innermost creek of Ofoten Fjord the Northern fjords and islands. distance to the Swedish frontier is only 6 miles. North of Hindöen, in Tromsö amt, there is also a chain of large islands, as Senjen, Kvalö, Ringvasö, and others. Of large fjords may be mentioned Malangen Fjord, Bals Fjord, Ulfs Fjord, Lyngen Fjord, as also Kvænang Fjord, with the grand scenery of the Kvænang peaks. In Finmark, the large coast islands Sörö, Stjernö, Seiland, Kvalö, Ingö, Magerö extend to the North Cape; but here the “skjærgaard,” or outer coast, comes abruptly to an end. The coast of east Finmark presents a totally different character: flat mountain wastes descend precipitously to the ocean without any islands beyond, save Vardö, with two low islets at the farthest eastern extremity of Norway. The fjords of Finmark are broad and long, as Alten Fjord, Porsanger Fjord, Laxe Fjord, Tana Fjord, all extending southwards, and Varanger Fjord, which takes a westerly direction. The farther east one proceeds the lower does the country become; the sharp peaks disappear and give way to a low-lying, monotonous landscape on the north side of Varanger Fjord; the south side, however, exhibits a more varied aspect, especially where, between the tributary fjords, several islands occur. The total area of the islands of Norway amounts to 8460 square miles.
Sea-bed.
The form of the sea-bed off the shores of Norway has been investigated, partly by the Coast Survey and partly by the Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition, 1876-78. (See North Sea and Norwegian Sea.) The hundred-fathom line of the North Sea extends west of the British Islands, and north of Shetland towards Norway, off Cape Stad. But the bank bounded by this line does not fully reach the Norwegian coast. From off Stad (62° N. lat.) a depression in the sea-bed, called the Norwegian Channel, stretches along the west and south coasts of Norway, southward and eastward, almost to Christiania Fjord and the Cattegat. The deepest part of this channel, upwards of 400 fathoms, extends through the Skagerrak between Arendal in Norway and the Scaw. Off Lister the depth is 200 fathoms, and off Bömmelen, the shallowest part, 120 fathoms. Thence it increases in a northerly direction, reaching 200 fathoms off Sogne Fjord, after which the channel finds an outlet into the deep basin of the Norwegian Sea. The breadth of the Norwegian Channel, computing by the hundred-fathom line, is from 50 to 70 miles; it is narrowest in the southernmost part, off Lindesnæs. Its walls shelve gradually down on either side, and the bottom is comparatively wide and flat. The bank extending between the coast and the inner slope of the channel is exceedingly narrow, being only from 7 to 10 miles broad. The Norwegian Channel thus constitutes a definite boundary between the plateau of the North Sea, with the countries rising from it, and the land of Norway. North of Stad occurs an expansion of the Norwegian coastal bank. Its outer slope rapidly descends towards the deep basin of the Norwegian Sea. While the hundred-fathom line keeps comparatively close to the Norwegian coast as far as the Russian frontier—off the Lofotens only does it extend a little more than 40 miles from land—the two-hundred-fathom line, which, off Romsdal, at Storeggen, runs at a distance of 40 miles from the shore, takes a northward direction, the coast, on the other hand, deflecting towards the north east and north-north-east. Accordingly the distance between them continues to increase till, off the coast of Helgoland, it reaches 130 miles. Off the Lofotens and Vesteraalen it again approaches the land, at its nearest point—off Andenæs in Vesteraalen being scarcely 10 miles distant. North of Vesteraalen, the two-hundred-fathom line, or the edge of the coastal bank, makes another bend towards the north, and draws off from the coast of Norway. The Barents Sea, which bounds Norway on the north, is a comparatively shallow ocean tract, the greater part of its bed ranging between 100 and 200 fathoms below the surface. Norway is thus encompassed by a series of rampart-like coastal banks, in the strictest sense continuous, being nowhere broken by channels through which ice-cold water from the depth of the Polar Sea would otherwise find a passage to the “sejlled” or navigable roads along the coast, and to the deep fjords that penetrate so far into the country. The Norwegian fjords have as a rule the remarkable characteristic that the bottom for great distances lies deeper, and in some cases very considerably deeper, than the surface of the coastal banks; thus, for example the Norwegian Channel is upwards of 400 fathoms deep in the Skagerrak, Stavanger Fjord has a depth of 380 fathoms, Hardann>r Fjord 355, Sogne Fjord 670, Nord Fjord 340, Throndhjem Fjord 300 Ranen Fjord 235, Vest Fjord 340, Alten Fjord 225, and Vaitager Fjord 230. These maximum depths occur in manv cases at a great distance from the sea.
Geology. For our knowledge of the geology of Norway we are chiefly indebted to the results brought to light by the Royal Norwegian Geological Survey, under the direction of Professor Kjerulf. To the geologist Norway presents a region of the highest interest, alike from the structure of the country itself and from the fact of the rock-surface almost everywhere lying bare and being intersected by natural profiles of valleys and ravines. Extensive tracts Archæan formation. consist of the Archæan formation, with its strata of gneiss, hornblende schist, and quartz,—the first of these forming the lower, the last the upper section, both of great depth. The beds are generally folded, and in part vertical. This formation occurs particularly in Romsdal, in the vicinity of Arendal, east of Christiania Fjord (gneiss), in Thelemark, Hallingdal, Nordfjord (quartz), along the shores of Sogne Fjord, throughout the inner tracts of east Finmark. Above this formation is the Sparagmite, chiefly consisting of fragmentary rocks in thick strata, with felspar embedded. The lowest beds are grey and red Sparagmite, partly accompanied by deep masses of conglomerate. To this formation belongs the blue quartz, widely distributed throughout central Norway, as also subordinate green and black clay schist and black limestones. In the latter, which constitute the upper part of the formation, the Primordial Zone, we meet with the first traces of animal life—the oldest trilobites. The Sparagmite formation extends throughout a great part of central Norway, Österdal, Gudbrandsdal, Land. In other parts the Primordial Zone is met with immediately above the Archæan rocks. Then succeeds the Silurian system. Silurian system, also of wide extent, occurring in a series of beds distinctly marked off by their fossils. Characteristic strata in this system are the orthoceratite limestone with graptolithic schist (Lower Silurian), next lime sandstone, pentamerous limestone, coral limestone, along with other strata, such as red clay schist, limestones, and marl slate (Upper Silurian). The Silurian beds are almost every where greatly bent, compressed, and dislocated; the strike is in the great majority of cases from south-west to north east. At and around Christiania, in the tracts bordering on Lake Mjösen and Skien Fjord, the Silurian beds occur without being metamorphosed, except locally at their contact with eruptive rocks. In the environs of Bergen, the outer part of Hardanger Fjord, the Hardanger Waste, in Sondre Throndhjem amt we meet with regionally metamorphic schists and limestones containing Silurian fossils. In the medial of the three sections of the Throndhjem schists occur Upper Silurian fossils. The Silurian system in Norway extends in the direction of south-west to north-east, straight across the southern part of the country, from Hardanger Fjord to some distance east of Throndhjem Fjord, as also from Skien Fjord to Lake Mjosen. Above the Silurian system is found, in various localities, more particularly west of Christiania Fjord, a sandstone formation, to some extent along with conglomerates, of which the geological age remains uncertain, no fossils having as yet been found in it. With this formation the series of stratified rocks in southern Norway may be said to terminate, since the next fossil-bearing strata are diluvian, containing Pleistocene animal remains.
