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![Halsnøy](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/kvi_15.jpg?itok=mn2F8JKB)
Halsnøy
Hadde ikkje Hardangerfjordbreen mot slutten av istida rykt fram over fjordbotnen, ville Halsnøy ikkje eksistert som éi øy, men som mange småøyar. Breen skuva framfor seg så mykje leire frå havbotnen at Brattåsen, Toftåsen, Landåsen og Svartaberg vart samla i eitt landområde.
![Langhaugane, Ulvanosa in the background.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/kvi_38.jpg?itok=bdNUBUC5)
![Ølve](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/landstet.jpg?itok=1EeuuxMs)
Ølve
Ølve has a special soil type. Here one finds an extra hard clay soil. This is especially noticed by those who work with excavating for building foundations and the like. Often it is necessary to use especially big digging machines and sometimes even dynamite in order to break up the compact masses. The reason for this is the growth of the glaciers toward the end of the Ice Age: The clay, that was first deposited in front of the glacier, came under great pressure when the glacier later grew and slid out over the clay.
![Litlematre](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/mas_10.jpg?itok=wpTaAy0K)
![Best salmon spot in the county](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/mas_20.jpg?itok=J1hd8Bvb)
![Hellandsfossen](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/modal_28.jpg?itok=CXBrp1mg)
![View in over Mostraumen.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/mo_16.jpg?itok=GnR34JLO)
Mostraumen
Until 1743 the people from Modal had to wait for a flood in MOSTRAUMEN before they could draw their boats up the river current, and then row back across Lake Movatnet. But, that year the flood opened a free passageway all the way to Mo. Hordaland had gained a new tidal waterway.
![Under the grass fields lie large quantities of sand and gravel.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/232/mo_24.jpg?itok=e4ePAE19)
Nedre Helland- Sand Quarries
The three spades in the municipal coat of arms for Modalen are sand spades. Sand quarrying has brought income and employment. As much as 70,000-80,0000 tonnes of sand and gravel left the municipality each year since the turn of the millennium, to be used as cementing sand. Why is Modalen endowed with so much sand?
![Steinslandsstølen around 1950.](https://www.grind.no/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/bilder/sted/1/kvh_331-_2.jpg?itok=4EWYkknE)
Stølsheimen
The large mountain area between Modalen, the Voss communities and Sogn is one of the finest mountain pasture areas in West Norway. In older times this area was called Steinslandsheimen, in our times it has acquired the name Stølsheimen. Power development and protection interests have been opposed here. The core area of Stølsheimen has now been protected as a landscape protection area, while some of the oldest mountain farms have been flooded. A register in the 1970s comprised almost 40 mountain farm settlements in the central area of Stølsheimen, belonging to Modalen, Høyanger and Vik municipalities.