TOPOGRAPHY
It is quite superficially that the Scandinavian peninsula is separated
from the continent by the shallow basin of the Baltic.
In reality it is the same uniformly built, even plateau of gneiss
and granite, with a few remains of palaeozoic strata, that is continued
from Finland, just dips beneath the level of the Gulf of Bothnia,
and then rises again slowly towards the west to an altitude of
about 1500 feet. Approaching the Atlantic, however, the rocky
ground suddenly changes, and the landscape acquires another
character. Above the low Baltic plateau, a new plateau rises with
a clearly defined step almost in a line from Lindesnes to the
North Cape, about 100 miles within the western coast. This higher
plateau arches slightly, to a height of about 3000 feet, from the
eastern edge towards the crest of the peninsula, which runs NNE,
whence again the western side dips down with a slight curve into
the Atlantic. Geologically, it appears that a new flake of the
earth s' crust has been reached here, of which part of the edge
appears to be pushed far out over the Baltic plateau, with
greatly transformed crystalline schists. Farthest west along the
coast, there are lines of eruptive rocks, granite and gabbro,
between archaic strata, highly folded, with their strike following
the coast-line. We here evidently have remains of old coast-chains
along the fall of the continent towards the ocean, as it is in so
many places, e. g. the Cordilleras. Whatever there have once
been, however, of actual mountain-chains have become levelled in
the course of long geological periods; we have nothing left but
a fairly level surface, afterwards forced up along the west margin
of the peninsula, like a low barrel vault, about 100 miles in width
which springs from the coast abutment of the continent eastwards
to the continental plateau.
The boundary between these two great structural features
of the Scandinavian peninsula is perhaps most clearly marked
in Swedish Norrland, where «the Highland» (hogfjallen) rises like
a distinct wall against the granite plateau of «the Woodland»
below. Farther south, in Norway, the defining line is less strongly
marked, and is not yet decidedly determined everywhere in a geological
sense. Topographically, however, a distinct step in the heights
is marked by a range of mountains which .rises far above the
Woodland below, to heights, some of which are only surpassed
by mountains considerably nearer the axis of altitud'e, viz. Salen,
5750 feet, Hogtind, 3920 feet, Prestkampen, 3986 feet, Synesfjeld,
4639 feet, Storrusten, 4219 feet, Norefjeld, 4951 feet, Gausta, 6178
feet, and Lifjeld, 5084 feet. And as in Norrland, the contrast is
brought prominently forward by the cessation of the great northern
Asiatic-European belt of conifers at the wall. The chief topographic
division will naturally be between the Woodland and the
Highland.
Only a small portion of the Woodland - 9 which thus corresponds
geologically with the continent plateau — falls within the
borders of Norway. I t is a district to the south-east, rising in
average height from 300 to 1500 feet, with undulating, forest-clad
hill-sides (highest summits 1000 to 2500 feet), which, from a width
of 200 miles along the frontier, rapidly dwindles along the Skagerak
towards the southern apex of the country (See Map in article
Forestry); and another district at the extreme north-east, in Fin-
marken, where, however, the slightly undulating plateau, though
only five or six hundred feet in height,- 4s very thinly clad
with forest.
The Highland we may reckon as beginning in the extreme
south-west, with a width of 60 miles within the Buknfjord, with
a plateau height that rapidly reaches 3000 feet along- the almost
imperceptible axis of altitude, and with peaks of from 4000 to
4500 feet, which rapidly decrease in height only when nearing the
coast. The Highland, or the Wide Waste («vidden»), as it is here
usually called, continues towards the NNE in the direction of the
long axis of the country, with increasing height and width -— up
to 150 mil<js|||jias the coast-line deviates more to the west, to the
culminating point of the Scandinavian peninsula in the Jotunheimen,