i88 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY, 



in the progrefs of the working, yet they are carried on with the 

 ufual diligence, in hopes of their proving better. 



It has been found that the filver-ore is not, as was at firn 1 im- 

 agined, limited to this {ingle mountain, which lies between the 

 river Jordal and Kongfberg ; but extends its veins for fome miles 

 throughout the adjacent diftrids, which is proved by the new 

 mines which are from time to time undertaken in feveral places, 

 and moil of them, by the bleilmg oi Providence carried on, very 

 profperouily. Old God's blefling, one of the moil ancient and 

 rich among all the mines, which, fometimes, within a week, has 

 yielded fome hundreds of pounds of rich ore, never fails to ftrike 

 the beholder with its afto-niming depth, being no lefs than one 

 The deepen hundred and eighty perpendicular fathoms, and the circumfer- 

 ence at the bottom forms a clear of forne hundred fathoms. The 

 fight of fo many piles of wood burning on all fides, thirty or forty 

 in number, in this gloomy cavern, and continually fed in order 

 to mollify the ftone, in the profecution of the mine, feems, ac- 

 cording to the common idea, an image of hell, and the fwarms 

 of miners buftling about in habits according to their feveral oc- 

 cupations, may well pafs for fo many devils, eipecially, when as 

 a fignal that a mine is going to be fprung in this or that courfe, 

 • they roar out, Berg-livet ! Berg-livet 1 Take care of your lives ! 

 I mail-here briefly repeat the words of a gentleman well /killed 

 in mining, Mr. Eman. Suedenborg, in the preface of his book 

 called Regnum Subterraneum, where he fays of thefe Kongfberg 

 Giver-mines, which are vifited by the travelling German-miners, 

 as,a~lyca2um in their fcience, to which Europe has not an equal; 

 " Quid Norvegiae in fodinis Kongfbergenfibus, ubi jam per fecu- 

 lum vix niii argentum nativum et femel iterumque etiam aurum, 

 tanquam auras melioris progenies, in lucem et diem gelidiilimum 

 plenhTimo faape cornu prodierat, cujus annuum proventum ab 

 anno 1711, ad 1724. fiftere volupe eft, ut inde miranda naturae 

 phenomena in regno fubterraneo exiftentia luculentius contem- 

 plari liceat. Ex illis fodinis du&as funt argenti multam partem 

 nativi, 



Anno 



