seen in a Tour in Norway. 67 



Geotrupes swarmed ; and under a stone occurred the 2?upres- 

 tis quadrimaculata. 



Shells were scarce. On land, the Helix hortensis and 

 hispida, with the Carocolla lapicida. On one of the neigh- 

 bouring islands I found several curious Clausiliae. Sea shells, 

 from the absence of tides, and the want of a dredge, were 

 inaccessible ; save the common periwinkle and the limpet, 

 both of which were creeping on the rocks, at the water's 

 edge." 



The great attractions of Arandal are the iron mines, so 

 well known for their fertility in mineral ogical treasures : they 

 are situated about a mile from the town, and present the 

 appearance of large quarries. The ore (magnetic iron ore) is 

 found in beds in the gneiss, and is easily worked. Many rare 

 minerals occur, such as botryolite, datholite, wernerite, sea- 

 polite, and moroxite ; besides abundance of epidote, actinolite, 

 coccolite, and colophonite. The miners besieged us every 

 evening with minerals for sale ; and, as they often brought 

 very fine specimens, at a trifling price, their visits were gene- 

 rally acceptable. One old man among them was well acquainted 

 with the minerals, and knew the scientific names of each. He 

 had been taught by a German collector ; who had taken this 

 method to further his views, the old miner acting as his agent. 

 The miners, in general, appeared to be an intelligent race, 

 but very lazy. 



The country around Arandal is formed chiefly of gneiss, 

 which abounds in veins of rose and milk quartz, and in iron 

 ores. On the east, the rock termed zircon syenite by Von 

 Buch occurs; and contains much Labrador felspar, but of 

 bad quality. At its junction with the gneiss, plates of a black 

 mica, often large, abound. In one of the islands, I found 

 rocks of a beautiful primitive porphyry. The gneiss about 

 Arandal abounds in garnets : sometimes the precious, but 

 generally the common, garnet." In the Island of Illiseroe, 

 those of the former kind are found of a large size and a fine 

 colour. 



We remained in Arandal and its neighbourhood ten days. 

 Our original plan was to have directed our course up the 

 country from Arandal; but the opportunity afforded us of 

 visiting Bergen, by the Constitutione steam-packet, which 

 gees there twice in the year, tempted us to desert our pro- 

 posed route; since the visit to Bergen would enable us to 

 reach the wildest and most mountainous portion of Norway. 



Edinburgh, Dec. 5. 1834. 



(To be continued .) 

 f 2 



