In the east country the movement 6f the glaciers was also
outwards in the direction of the general slope of the land, but
here, during the great glacial period, it met with resistance from
the east, from the enormous masses of ice, which were sent out
from the Scandinavian peninsula over the whole of the Northern
European plain. Boulders from the sides of the Kristiania Fjord
give evidence of having been carried all round the south coast
and northwards as far as Jsederen. The masses of ice from eastern
Norway and the adjoining parts of Sweden have thus been forced
by the counter-pressure of the continental side of the great glacier
to the eastward, to pass along the Skagerak and farther round
the south point of Norway in a wide bend northwards towards
the Atlantic. This huge glacier flow, like the fjord glaciers, must
have hollowed out its own bed; and we find round the whole
southern coast of Norway a deep trough about 30 miles broad,
with its greatest depth (2600 feet, off Arendal) a long way from'
the mouth (beyond Bommelaen, where it is not more than 900 feet).
This Norwegian Channel, which separates the narrow coast-bank of
Norway from the great, shallow, submarine plain of the North
Sea, must thus be regarded as an eastern equivalent to the west-
country fjords.
In all formerly ice-covered countries, — e. g. Greenland, the
most northerly and most southerly coasts of America, Scotland,
■etc. fHHand only in these countries there is, besides the series
of fjords, at or among their mouths, another characteristic surface-
form, viz. the belt of islands and skerries, called'«slcjisrgaarden»
in Norway. On approaching the west coast from the sea, the
land first appears as an even, low strip, which rises as it is
approached, and then shows that it arches up to higher summits
inland. Far out, the waves are seen to break over rocks either
sunken or visible, but the land still appears to form one continuous
wall. Only on steering in among the rocks do we see that generally
several channels open up. We twist about through a crowd
of rocks and little islands; and inside large islands we find tortuous
sounds, whence again deep fjords cut their way up through
mountains that rise higher as the distance from the coast
increases. Near the margin of the inland ice, towards the dissolving
ocean, the glacier streams had freer course, could adapt
themselves to the small unevennesses in the substratum, follow
the lines of least resistance, according to the kind of rock, the