NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 191 



A clerk of the huts. 



A mafter of the huts. 



An afiay-mafter. 



A mafter of the mint. 



An engraver. 



A keeper of the faws. 



A chief forefter. 



Three under forefters. 



A foreft-clerk. 



A phyfician and furgeon. 



SECT. V. 



The other Norway filver-mine was difcovered in the year The jariiberg 

 1726, and begun by the families of Hufmann and Cicignon, and 

 afterwards, in the year 1734, devolved to count Wedel. It lies 

 . near Bragnas, and for wood, water, and other necefTaries, is very 

 conveniently fituated ; and its ore likewife is very rich, but with- 

 out fuch folid veins or maffes of pure filver as thofe at Kongfberg, 

 the ore, like that of the German-mines, having a large mixture of 

 lead and copper, which, in the phrafe of the miners, muff, be 

 made good, and feparated by fufion. This operation has hitherto 

 been inexpreflibly difficult and laborious, and the profecution of 

 the work has been greatly obftru&ed by the tedious labour, and 

 excemve charges occasioned by the hardnefs of the metal, or ra- 

 ther by the adhefion of the metal, and its intimate conjunction with 

 the ftone. Whether this arifes from a large mixture of arfenic and 

 antimony, or from what other caufe, has been a controverted 

 point, and I muft refer the decifion to better judges. The hand- 

 ftones which I have of this, contain, as I have faid, copper, iron, 

 and lead, intermixed with the filver, yet the filver in fuch abun- 

 dance, that when experience mall have improved the prefent me- 

 thod of fufion and feparation, and this mine comes to be wrought 

 with more fkill and attention, I am of opinion it will prove no 

 lefs profitable than that of Kongfberg itfelf. In the mean time 

 the filver and lead found here, is fold to the royal mint at Kong- 

 fberg at a fettled rate. The names of the mines hitherto found, 

 and now wrought at the depth of forty-five fathoms, are upwards 

 of twelve in number. In copper-mines this kingdom has likewife 

 been providentially and remarkably diftinguifhed, efpecially in the 

 Part I. D d d moun- 



