NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. i$t 



tinned. Of this kind are the feveral old mines in upper Telle- 

 mark, long over-grown with mofs and grafs, but which were 

 formerly wrought in the fame manner as thofe of Kongfberg. 

 They are mentioned by Baron Holberg, in his prefent ftate of 

 Denmark and Norway, and as he is of opinion that they are of 

 very ancient date, he exprefTes fome furprize, that not the lead 

 mention is made of them by hiitorians, fince by their remains, 

 they appear to have been a work of vaft charge and extent, per- 

 haps not inferior to any of the iilver- works in Kongfberg. This 

 complaint of the Baron's is the more excufeable, as at the firft 

 publication of his book, the Annales Nic. Kraggei, which had long 

 lain dormant, had not yet feen the light, but there he would 

 have feen that thefe deferred mines were of no longer ftanding 

 than the reign of Chriftian III. and worked at the expence of 

 that monarch ; but the Norway-peafants raifing a tumult againfl: 

 the Saxon miners, to whofe command they would not fub- 

 mit, as fpeaking a foreign tongue, for which fome were capitally 

 punifhed ; and likewife on account of the floods which broke out 

 from the caverns, this work was foon deferted, at a very great 

 lofs. The words of the aforefaid Nic. Kraggei, concerning this 

 affair, in his Vita Chrift. III. in Annal. ad A. 1539, p. 204, are 

 as follows : " Coeptum erat fuperiore anno in Tilemarchia, pro- 

 vincia Norvegias, e vifceribus terra, argenti, cupri et plumbi me- 

 talk eruere, ac probata materia, Eledori Saxoniae aliifque ejus rei 

 peritis, ad quern fuper hoc negotium aliquoties Scriptum, magna 

 fpe arceiTite ex Mifnia operas, mandata cura et infpecliio primum 

 ftigoto Baggoni, inde Antonio Brufchio, moderatore operarum 

 Johanne Glaffone, ac immunitates indultas, prout in fodinis mif. 

 nicis turn jura condita, quibus operas regerentur. Nihilominus ta- 

 men illae rufticis abutentes infolentius agebant. Eo magis dolebat 

 miferis, quod prater folitum onera imponerentur, nullo emolu- 

 mento : Simul quia res erat cum hominibus, quibufcum nullo lin- 

 guas commercio tarn brevi familiaritas intercedere potuit, alienati 

 magis animi. Itaque coierunt aliqui paroeciarum ruflici, ut ope- 

 rantes aut affligerent, aut iis locis expellerent. Sed petulantia ip- 

 forum a praefidibus, quos dixi, refrenata. Ac pauci quidam poft, 

 mandato regis, extremo fupplicio affe&i, reliquis alia mulda irro- 

 gata, prout quifque culpas affinis, aut a noxa immunis reperieba- 



tur, 



