It is only after contemplating thoroughly the present form of the granitic and metamorphic hills of Scandinavia,—hills that are always angular when subjected only to subaerial weathering,—that one can form an adequate conception of the magnitude of this shallowing deposit. The rounding, shaving, grinding, planing, and universal abrasion everywhere displayed appear to me to justify the conclusion that if the sea were now raised to the level of the terraces, _i.e._, 600 feet higher than at present, the mass of matter abraded from the original Scandinavian mountains, and lying under the sea, would exceed the whole mass of mountain left standing above it. The first question suggested by reading Mr. Geikie’s book was whether the terraces are wholly or partially formed of till, and more especially whether their lower portions are thus composed. This, as already stated, was easily answered by the almost unanimous reply of all the many Norwegian valleys I traversed. Any tourist may verify this. The next question was whether this same till extends below the sea. This was not so easily answered by the means at my disposal, as I travelled hastily round the coast from Stavanger via the North Cape to the frontier of Russian Lapland in ordinary passenger steam-packets, which made their stoppages to suit other requirements than mine. Still, I was able to land at many stations, and found, wherever there was a gently sloping strand at the mouth of an estuary, or of a valley whose river had already deposited its suspended matter (a common case hereabouts, where so many rivers terminate in long estuaries or open out into bag-shaped lakes near the coast), and where the bottom had not been modified by secondary glaciation, that the receding tide displayed a sea-bottom of till, covered with a thin stratum of loose stones and shells. In some cases the till was so bare that it appeared like a stiff mud deposited but yesterday. At Bodö, an arctic coast station on the north side of the mouth of the Salten fjord (lat. 67° 20´), where the packets make a long halt, is a very characteristic example of this; a deposit of very tough till forming an extensive plain just on the sea-level. The tide rises over this, and the waves break upon it, forming a sort of beach by washing away some of the finer material, and leaving the stones behind. The ground being so nearly level, the reach of the tide is very great, and thus a large area is exposed at low tide. Continuous with this, and beyond the limit of high tide, is an extensive inland plain covered with coarse grass and weeds growing directly upon the surface of the original flat pavement of till.