[16] The terminal moraine at the Oxfjord station, which I have already mentioned as the only ancient example of an ordinary moraine that I have seen in Arctic Norway, was, of course, a special object of interest to me. Further observation showed that it does not merely consist of the heap of stones I noticed in 1856, which appears like a disturbed talus cut through and heaped up at its lower part, but that there is another moraine adjoining it, or in continuation with it, which is covered with vegetation, and stretches quite across the mouth of the valley. The Duke of Roxburgh, who is well acquainted with this neighborhood, having spent sixteen summers in Arctic Norway, was one of our fellow-passengers, and told me that this moraine forms a barrier that dams up the waters of a considerable lake, abounding with remarkably fine char. I learned this just as the packet was starting, too late to go on shore even for a few minutes, and obtain a view of this lake and the valley beyond. This I regret, as it might have revealed some explanation of the exceptional nature of this moraine. It would be interesting to learn whether it belongs to the greater ice age, or to that period of minor glaciation that fashioned the farm patches already described. The formation of the lake is easily understood in the latter case. It is only required that such a minor reglaciated valley as one of these should be of larger magnitude and of very gentle inclination at its lower part, so that the secondary glacier should die out before reaching the present seashore. It would then deposit its moraine across the mouth of the valley, and this moraine would dam up the waters which such a valley must necessarily receive from the drainage of its hilly sides. Llyn Idwal, in North Wales, is a lake thus formed. [17] See “Through Norway with a Knapsack,” chapters xi. and xii., for further descriptions of these. [18] Lyell, “Elements of Geology,” p. 159. [19] The celebrated “Maelström” is one of the currents that flow down the submarine incline between these islands when the tide is falling. Although I have ridiculed some of the accounts of this now innocent stream, I am not prepared to assert that it was always as mild as at present. If the ancient glaciers were stopped suddenly, as they may well have been, by the rocky barrier of Mosken, between Vaerö and Moskenesö, and they then suddenly concluded their deposition of till, a precipice must have been formed between this and the deep sea outside the islands, down which the sea would pitch when the tide was falling, and thus form some dangerous eddies. This cascade would gradually obliterate itself by wearing down the precipitous wall to an inclined plane such as at present exists, and down which the existing current flows.