1. Gneiss predominates in the Romsdal and Sneehættan districts; also north and south of Sogne fjord, running down to the entrance of Hardanger.
2. Granite predominates in the south in large areas up to the Vöring Fos, and in detached portions in Vestranden towards Trondhjem. Christiansand is granite.
3. Sparagmit fjeldets (Norske) is found in Central Norway. This is a comglomerate of red sandstone, and sometimes called red and grey sparagmite.
4. Trondhjem quartz in the north, really hard schist: not found south of the Dovre fjeld.
5. Syenite and porphyry round Christiania.
6. Labrador stone occurs west of Lindernæs, in the south, at Ekersund on the west coast, below Stavanger, round the Galdhopiggen (the highest point in Norway), and north-east of Fortun, in the Sogne fjord.
The whole of this surface bears record of the immense extent and effect of the glacial period of Norway. The valleys show the glacial set as distinctly as does the tide in large rivers, the greatest attrition and scoriation being in the concaves going down. Huge bastions of rock[7] have been rounded and ground down by constant attrition, and vast terraces of sand, at the end of each valley, are the result of this attrition accumulating for ages. It would be very interesting to analyze and find the component parts of these immense deposits. Certain it is there is no natural sandy soil above, and, as we have before mentioned, when reindeer-hunting, we have found huge boulders of thirty or forty feet at an elevation of 5,000 feet, with smaller ones of a different formation resting on them. Now all this has been brought about by the influence of the gulf stream: when the gulf stream took this course the glacial period ceased in Norway. That epoch none can tell. It will be sufficient to notice the result, which is this: when the polar current from Spitzbergen runs down the west coast of the Atlantic, and produces the great fogs off Newfoundland, the gulf stream, driven up from the Gulf of Florida by the force of the great caldron of the equator, strikes on to our west coast and the coast of Norway, running up to the North Cape; in fact, the only timber to be obtained there is the drift wood from the West Indies; and at Hammerfest casks of palm oil have been washed up from Cape Lopez Point, in Africa. In Iceland, too, as Professor Ericker Magnussen informs us, the bridges are made of mahogany. Not that bridges are frequent in that country; but those which they have are made from the logs washed up there. This accounts for the variety of temperature which the two boundaries of Norway—the gulf stream on the west, and Sweden on the east—present. For instance, though Bergen and Christiania are in about the same latitude, the average temperature at the former is 46° 8´ and at the latter 41° 5´; the summer average is about the same; but in the winter months Christiania is often 13° colder than Bergen. Hence there may be skating at Christiania while there is none at all at Bergen, where the average annual rainfall is 72 inches, which, by the way, is lower than that in our English lakes.
[7]See the rocks of Steensund, on the west coast: these are conglomerate.
Mean Temperature.
| Winter. | Spring. | Summer. | Autumn. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christiania | + 25° | + 38° | + 60° | + 42° |
| Bergen | + 36 | + 45 | + 58 | + 48 |
| Trondhjem | + 24 | + 35 | + 61 | + 40 |
| North Cape | + 24 | + 30 | + 42 | + 32 |