to cut down into the rocky mass. The extensive remains of the
continuous vault show, however, that they had scarcely'succeeded
in doing more than cutting deep cafions, such as we are acquainted
with in newly-risen land elsewhere, e. g. the Pacific States. Such
cafions must there be cut deep down into the western arched side
of the mountain, and similarly through the edge of the plateau
towards the continental area of the Woodland. But the form of
these deep, narrow incisions which cut up the arched surface so
Glacier (Jostedal).
sharply, show that the work of the rivers must soon have been
succeeded by that of the glaciers in the great Ice Age, when Norway
was covered, as Greenland now is, with inland ice.
Disputed though the question even now is, it seems difficult,
in the end, to avoid the conclusion that all the most prominent features
in the surface-geology of Norway are due to the action of
the erosive forces just at that period.
The coast country of Norway is first of all remarkable as the
land of the fjords. There is not, as in most countries, a more
or less continuous coast-line; it is broken up incessantly by deep
incisions of the sea into the rocky cliffs, fjord after fjord, a