NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



in metals, fuperior to all the treafures that ever the eaft af- 

 forded *. 



SECT. II. 



Should time verify this prediction, the generation then in being 

 muft conftrue it an accomplifhment of the words of Job, xxxvii. 2, 

 from the north comet h gold; for in the year 1697, when, although 

 prematurely, Paracelfus's golden age was thought to be at handj 

 a golden mine being difcovered, the abovementioned words were 

 the impreffion on one fide of the ducats, with the image of Chri- 

 ftian V. on the other. The number of them however was incon- 

 fiderable, the mine foon failing, but in finenefs the gold was 

 equal to that of Hungary. And fometime before, namely in 1 644, 

 and 1645, Mr. Berenfen relates, page 274, that near Aggefide, or 

 in the diocefe of Chriftianfand, on the eftate of Mr. Chriftopher 

 Gios, gold ore was found f , from which thofe ducats were ftruck, 

 which the foreigners would by no means believe to be of Norway- 

 gold, from a falfe preporTeflion that Norway afforded no fuch 

 precious metal. However, Chriftian IV. to avoid the charge of 

 an often tatious parade, in decking himfelf with foreign feathers, 

 in the year 1647, ordered other ducats to be ftruck of the fame 

 gold, which were called Spectacle-ducats, the reverfe of them 

 being a pair of fpectacles with this legend, Vide mira domi J. 



The 



* I cannot fpecify the place in his writings, having only met with it in Scaffer's 

 Lapland, quoted from Turnaeus, and it is repeated by Mr. Peter Hogftrom, in his 

 Description of Lapland. 



f Anno 1644, Nobiliff. D. Jo. Sigfrid de.Lutichau, rei metallicse in Norv. Prse- 

 fectus generalis, minera auri invenit in traftu Nedenecenfi prope portum Arndalen- 

 fern et curiam Barlo, nigram talcofam, frequentibus fplendentem micis, in cujus 

 bonitatem cum inquifiviiTet, invenit pondo centenarium ejus minerse praebere auri 



puri marcas triginta octo, et infuper centum quadraginta fex marcas argenti. Ali- 



amal terms venae malTam Anno 1646, quae ignibus depurata, ex libra una, auri 

 puri dedit drachmas fex, praefente Reg. M. fruftrum quod teneo minutioribus fplen- 

 det micis et priori magis ad rubidinem vergit. Addu&se funt ex eodem loco mi- 

 ners takofae itidem ex frequentibus granatis praegnantes, quas auro fcatere multi 

 exiftimant. Mane mineram Anno 1646, Regi ipfi detexit milieus quidam Gammei 

 Grodewyn, i. e. old Grodewyn, diclus. Sita fodina eft ad portum Marede didum 

 (this muft be Mardoe) extracfu Nidrofienfi lapis quidam arenofus aureis fcatens 

 fcmtillis et granulis minutis, mihi allitus et talci aurei nigrefcentis fquamulas, ex 

 quibus aurum erui volunt. In argentifodinis Norv. prope Regiomontum putens 

 Brunfwig diclus, aurum prsebet, refert namque D. Normand, quod A. 1630, d. 3. 

 April. 7, marcas et fex uncias cum dimidia, auri unciam femis obtenuerit. 01. Worm, 

 in Mulaeo, page j 15. 



4 Thele are, doubtlefs, the gold-mines meant by Olig. Jacobeus in his Mufaaum 

 Regium, p. 31, Miners duae auri e fodinis Norveg. quarum una intermixtam fibi 



•i- J AiiT I. A a a habec 



