8.  The  Hardanger  fiord,  one  of  the  largest,  on  the  south
of  E^en,  extends  nearly  a  hundred  miles  inland,  and  con-

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258    POLITICAL  AND  DESCRIPTIVE  GEOGEAPHT.    P^^j^SJ^

tains  within  itself  many  of  minor  dimensions.  One  of  theee,
the  Matre  fiord,  four  miles  long,  and  but  a  quarter  of  a  mile
>¥ide,  is  an  immense  cleft  in  a  mountain  mass,  the  sides  of
which  rise  from  three  to  five  thousand  feet,  either  perpen-
dicularly, or  overhang  in  places  the  water,  said  to  be  here
unfathomable.  When  visited  by  Wittich,  at  eleven  o'clock
on  the  mom  of  a  midsummer  day,  the  rays  of  the  sun  had
not  yet  penetrated  to  the  bottom  of  the  cleft ;  and  the  gloom
which  rested  on  the  surface,  heightened  by  the  dark  rocky
masses  on  the  sides,  excited  painM  sensations.  *'  The  yiew
was  not  grand,  it  was  not  sublime — ^it  was  horrific.  At  the
view  of  a  truly  grand  scene  our  feelings  expand,  but  at  the
sight  of  this  cleft  I  felt  that  they  were  contracted.  I  could
not  breathe  with  common  ease,  and  the  sensation  which
filled  my  mind  approached  nearer  to  horror  than  to  any  other
feeling."  The  inlets  furnish  a  plentiful  supply  of  fish  to
districts  considerably  inland.
