i l l " i ™ d6gree °f 8 The comtry within the polar
i e which has an area of 36,081 sq. miles, has 2265 sq. miles
that is to say somewhat more than 6%, of forest, and less than
h h of fields and meadows. Vast tracts of this region — the
country of the midnight sun, properly so called — are entirely
desolate, only traversed every now and then by the nomadic
Lapps, with their reindeer flocks. The mountain plateau of Fin-
marken, and to a certain extent also the islands, have for a long
S B B H i deVOid °f f0rests- But as late as tie beginning
of the 18th century, when the settlement of these regions first
commenced in earnest, dense forests (birch and in part pine) were
found m several places in the open, evenly-sloping valleys, and
at the heads of the large fjords. ‘ -
South of Saltdalen (about. 67 degrees N. Lat.) and outside the
polar circle, the forest changes character. The coniferous trees
become more prominent, and form the forest-covering of the
wooded plains and the lower hills down to the very southernmost
part of the country. (See the chart of conifers with a tabular
statement of the coniferous and deciduous trees of the country
according to Prof. H e LLAND). I n the eastern and southern parts
of the country, these trees cover the mountain slopes, up from
the cultivated .fields and the home pasturages at the bottom of
the valleys, and are .replaced, at a height of 2600 feet above the
H H H B b j birch foreSt8’ wMch in H turn disappear
at the height of 3200 to 3600 feet above the level of the sea
yielding their place to the shrubs of the mountain plateau, the
dwarf birch (Betula nana) and willow (Salix).
_ The coastland may be considered almost as devoid of forests
from the southern point of the country to the Russian frontier
on the Arctic Ocean. A great part of the country, west of the
Dovrefjeld and the Langfjeldene is taken up by this coast, which
retains its barren and naked aspect far into the many deep-cut
i f i s i 18 true’ in H ^ on promontories where protection
is afforded from the sea-winds, some small forests may still occur
which reckless treatment has not yet been able to destroy; but
the bulk of the forest is found, as is also shown by the chart,
farther m m the interior of the country, at the heads of the fjords
and m the valleys which form their continuations, and on those .
wide isthmuses where the climate approaches a continental one.
. he western part of the country, however, is poorly provided with
MAP SHOWING
THE DISTRIBUTION
OF CONIFERS,
R f
Counties: Area
sq. km.
Forest
sq. km.
Percentage
of
Area.
1. Smaalenene . . . 4,127 2,514 60.9
2. A k e rsh u s............. 5,321 3,350 63.9
3. Hedemarken . . . 27,027 : 12,470 46.2
4. Kristians . . . . . 25,841 5,504 21.3
5. Buskerud............. 14,786 4,950. 33.5
6. JarlsbergogLarvik 2,312 1,360 58.8
7. Bratsberg . . . . . 15,185 5,673 37.3
8. N edenses............. 9,347 3,467 37.0
9._ Lister og Mandal 7,248 1,860 25.7
10. Stavanger............. 9,139 1,096 12.0
11. S. Bergenhus. . . 15,606 2,011 12.9
12. N. Bergenhus . . 18,510 2,209 ll.9
13. Boms dal . . . . . 14,967- 2,479 16.6
14. S. Trondhjem . . 18,587 5,680 30.6
15. N. Trondhjem . . 22,762 5,184 22.7
16. N o rd lan d ............. 37,966 3,530 9.3
17. T rom so ................ 26,245 2,077 7.S
18. Finmarken . . . . 47,380 2,765 5.8
Norway exclusive of
towns . . ................ 322,356 68,179 21.1
Southern Norway . . 210,765 59,807 28.4
(i. e. 1—15)
Northern Norway . . 111,591 8,372 * 7.5
(i. e. 16—18)