292 KALM'S ENGLAND. 



increases, tager til, until very low down one sees 

 nothing else but bare Freestone. 



[T. I. p. 288.] This freestone is dug deep under the 

 hills. Here were three places, where they had formerly 

 hewn the same, and where adits down at the foot of the 

 hill went far under the earth, or the chalk hill. I was as 

 far in as the ends of two of them, one of which was 

 longer than the other. The former went as far as 40 

 poles — 660 feet under ground. 



At the entrance into the hill the same was walled 

 round for about 12 feet, as a door to this Freestone, to 

 prevent the Hurlok on the steep side of the hill from 

 slipping down and closing up the entrance again. But 

 after one gets farther in, it was not any longer walled, 

 but the roof and walls consisted entirely of Freestone, 

 just as nature had set it there. When anyone wished to 

 enter, a light, which was carried in the hand to light one- 

 self with, was lighted at the entrance of the adit. For 

 after one had come 6 or 7 fathoms into the mine, there 

 was no more daylight, but it was coal-black darkness as 

 of night. The breadth of these adits under ground was 

 for the most part 6 feet, the height 7 feet. Still the 

 breadth and height were sometimes a little greater, 

 sometimes again somewhat less. The water now trickled 

 down everywhere through the roof, or vault of the adits, 

 gangarna, from the hill above, ofvan ifran backen, 

 which was said to come from the snow and rain which 

 had collected on the hill in the winter-time, but in the 

 summer, according to the unanimous account of the 

 workmen, this is everywhere as dry as it is on a dry 

 highway road. The carls avail themselves of this water 

 which is thus filtered down, silas ned, when they would 

 sharpen their tools with which they perform their work, 

 but for nothing else. Both roof and walls were very 

 uneven, for sometimes the sides projected, &c, some- 



