Norway and Its Glaciers (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1853 edition. Excerpt: ...barrier of ice, the main glacier being formed by the union of three ice streams descending from the "fond " above. "' Two smaller independent glaciers also fall into the valley--the Vetlie Brae on the left and the Tvaer Brae on the right, as shown in the sketch on the opposite page. About 900 yards in advance of the glacier is a great moraine, evidently modern. Its limits may be at once traced all round, for no birch wood grows within them. Beyond a question, it is of the same date with the great extension of the Nygaard glacier, presently to be mentioned, and of which the date is known. The Tvaer Brae has a corresponding moraine. These ridge-like accumulations are called by the peasants Brae-vor, " vor" meanning an artificial heap. The ascent upon the ice of the glacier is exceedingly It is also called the glacier of Berset from the name of the highest farm in the valley. GLACIERS or KRONDAL. 165 easy; and I found the veined or slaty structure, universally found in the Swiss glaciers, to be developed here in the same manner and similarly disposed with reference to the shape of the glacier as I have detailed elsewhere in describing these. The crevasses are few, chiefly towards the centre of the ice, and radiating in the lower part, as in Fig. 2, page 172 of my Travels in the Alps. The whole indicates a condition of great pressure from above, derived from the consolidation of the icefall already mentioned, the bottom or sole of the valley being comparatively flat. I estimated (by the aneroid barometer) the foot of the glacier to be 857 feet above the church of Justedal, or 1317 above the sea. " I traversed the ice nearly along the axis or medial line of the glacier until the slope became abrupt, and found...