NATURAL HISTORY ^NORWAY. 199 



About thirty years ago a fociety undertook the working; of a On the Mand 



r 1 1 -n iro i r r i ofSmolen. 



copper-mme round on the liland or Smolen, not far from the 

 leiTer Fofen, now called Chriflianfand, but diiTenlions, and other 

 caufes have put a flop to it* 



On the other hand, in the year 1741, a fociety undertook aoedai. 

 copper-mine at Oedal, nine Norway-miles from Chrifriania, which 

 turns out to their great advantage, every quintal of ore yielding, 

 befides fome lilver, iixty or feventy pound of copper. 



SECT. XII. 



iron iA 

 general. 



Iron, which Pliny juftly calls, optimum vitae pelTimumque in- of i 

 ftrumentum, abounds all over Norway, but chiefly in the diocefe 

 of Chrifcianfand, where the fpiritus vegetativus, feems to have im- 

 pregnated % all kinds of earth, according to the frequent obfer- 

 vations made from chymical analyfes of water, ft-one^ and moorifh 

 earth. Dr. Nichols, in a letter of his, fays, that, among all 'the Phiiofophkai 

 feveral fubftances of which our earth is compofed, none is more voLxxxv/ 

 generally found than iron, this metal being refident not only * 4 ° 2- 

 in all kind of ftones, but alfo in loam. This he proves by the 

 colours of loam, and the iron marcafite, by the facility of vitrify- 

 ing loam, and by the fimilitude between vitrified loam, and the 

 iron lamellae, by the dark red colour, which loam acquires by cal- 

 cination, and laftly, by this, that when burnt with a mixture of 



* Concerning the vegetation of all metals by means of a vitriolic fpirit, which, 

 according to the Creator's difpofition, emanes in vapours from the center of the earth 

 to its utmoft extremities, and particularly refides in the mountains for the o- ra dual 

 growth of new metals, a great deal has been written by thofe who believe fuch a ve- 

 getation, though, by what I can fee, experience is not on their fide; no miner faying 

 that he has ever obferved any appearance of new metal to have grown in mines after 

 being exhaufted an hundred years or more : But a more decifive confutation of it is, 

 what I have mentioned concerning the ore-drifts, the copper-mines at Roraas, in the 

 fame large flat ftrata, as at the creation, or at the deluge. However, as matter of 

 further reflection for thofe who may be of another opinion, I fhall here add, what the 

 very eminent Count Marfilli writes on this fubject, the rather; as from the price of it, 

 his work is not in every body's hands, in Danub. Panon. Torn. in. p. 117; he fays^ 

 " Metalli hujjus (ferri) ex primo illo, juxta noftram hypothefm reliquis etiam nobili- 

 oribus metallis communi principio, feu fpiritu metallico deducendo videtur, fub vario 

 tamen refpechi feu gradu maturitatis, juxta majorem minoremve matricum ac fucco- 

 rum ibi occurrentium aptitudinem. And further, p. 129. Attends obfervatiOnibus, 

 quas haclenus recenfuimus, vifum nobis eft, pofTe probabiliter ftatui, communem 

 quendam halitum metallicum feu fpiritum ex penitioribus terras (veluti femen ibi leo-e 

 conditoris reconditum) ad fuperficiem ufque elevari, tamque montium partes perva- 

 dere, quam ipfas planities, verum tamen congruam ipfius fixationem potius in mon- 

 tibus fieri, mione peculiaris ftrudturse lapides ac fecretionis fuccorum ibi concurrent 

 tium ad diiferentiam ftrufturas ac porofitatis terras components planities. 



Part I. F f f oil 



