NATURAL HISTORY of N RWAT. iSj 



fucli thing without ocular proof *, being foon interrupted and 

 dwindling to nothing, the miner muft continue to dig through 

 the barren rock, till he has the good fortune to find more, which 

 in one day will reward the labour of a whole month, * or even of 

 fome years, fo that hope may be faid to be the fpirit of this work, 

 through fo many interftices, by which the workman muft not be 

 difcouraged, but perfevere in his fearch in a full permalloy that 

 ore leads to ore. Were it not for thefe barren interftices all the 

 filver-works in Europe together could not come in competition 

 with that of Kongfberg, the immenfe riches of which may be in- 

 ferred from this, that after the difcouragements of a long, fruits 

 lefs labour, it fuddenly exhibits feveral thoufand pound weight of 

 filver, and thus difcharges all arrears and embarrafTments, and 

 animates to further profecution. The labour therefore is never 

 in vain, not even, when it moft appears fo, for fome thoufands of 

 hands, who aie employed therein, and of whom a lift mail be 

 given in the fequel, always earn their daily fupport. If this were 

 all the profit, which however is very far from being the cafe, yet 

 it would not be inconfiderable, for the acquisition of the filver by 

 which fo many families are maintained, and which thus circulates 

 all over the country, muft be efteemed a great emolument to the 

 public. In proof of the large and rich mafTes of filver contained 

 in the mines of Norway, I fhall only obferve, that in the royal 

 mufeum at Copenhagen, a piece is preferved, which the whole 

 world cannot produce an equal, its weight being five hundred 

 and ftxty pound, and its value five thoufand rix dollars f . Be- 



* Non in omnibus argenti fodinis hoc invenitur, adeo ut, an tale detur, dubitaffe 

 videatur Plinius alique veteres. Non occurrit iri Rhetia, Norico, Dacia, fed in qui- 

 bufdam Mifens fodinis, licet non in omnibus, et in Norvegia in Regio monte fre- 

 quentiffime et in magna copia, ut ex inde maffe quandoque exfcindantur pondere ali- 

 quot centenarum librarum, Ol. Worm. Mufeum, p. 115. 



■f Of this mafs of Norway -filver, Olig. Jacobeus in his Mufeum Regium, page 31, 

 gives the following defcription, Minera ingens argenti ex fodinis Norvegia?, pedum 

 quinque et pollicum fex longitudinem sequat, craflitiem vero in circumferentia pedum 

 quatuor. Anno 1666. d. 24. Augufti ex fodina Norv. Regiomontana, quse novas 

 fpei appellatur vulgo, nye Forhaabnings Grube, extracta eft 560 librarum pondere, et 

 a prasfeclo fodinae memoratae, pretio 5000 imperialium eftimata. Huic non diffimilis 

 maifa, anno 1630, regnante in Dania divo Chriftiano quarto ex fodina Norvegica quse 

 benediclio divina vulgo, Seegen Gottes appellatur, eruta eft, quas 3272. Imperialium 

 pretio eftimata; to which I mail add, that in the year 17 19, in the fhaft called Saint 

 Andrew, was found a piece of pure filver of two hundred and feventy nine pound, as 

 was in the year 1727, one of two hundred and forty-five pounds, in the mine cailed 

 Prince Royal, and in the fame year another weighing three hundred and four pounds 

 was found in the God's-bleffing fhaft, thefe foreign miners who have come into thefe 

 parts, made a difficulty of believing it, till their own eyes convinced them of the truth. 



fides 



