NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. iti 



tinued. Of this kind are the feveral old mifies in upper Telle- 

 mark, long over-grown with mofs and grafs, but which were 

 formerly wrought in the fame manner as thofe of Kongfberg. 

 They are mentioned by Baron Holberg> in his prefent ftate of 

 Denmark and Norway, and as he is of opinion that they are of 

 very ancient date, he exprefles fome furprize, that not the leaft 

 mention is made of them by hiftorians^ fince by their remains, 

 they appear to have been a work of vaft charge and extent, per- 

 haps not inferior to any of the lilver-works in Kongfberg. This 

 complaint of the Baron's is the more excufeable, as at the flrft 

 publication of his book, the Annales Nic. Kraggei, which had long 

 lain dormant, had not yet feen the light, but there he would 

 have feen that thefe deferred mines were of no longer ftanding 

 than the reign of Chriftian III. and worked at the expence of 

 that monarch ; but the Norway-peafants railing a tumult ao-ainft 

 the Saxon miners, to whofe command they would not fub- 

 mit, as fpeaking a foreign tongue, for which fome were capitally 

 punifhed; and likewife on account of the floods which broke out 

 from the caverns, this work was foon deferted, at a very great 

 lofs. The words of the aforefaid Nic. Kraggei, concerning this 

 affair, in his Vita Chrift. III. in Annal. ad A. 1539, p. 204, are 

 as follows : « Coeptum erat fuperiore anno in Tilemarchia, pro- 

 vincia Norvegias, e vifceribus terras, argenti, cupri et plumbi me- 

 talla eruere, ac probata materia, Eledori Saxoniae aliifque ejus rei 

 peritis, ad quern fuper hoc negotium aliquoties Scriptum, magna 

 fpe arceffitae ex Mifnia operas, mandata cura et infpedio primum 

 ftigoto Baggoni, inde Antonio Brufchio, moderatore operarum 

 Johanne Glaffone, ac immunitates indultae, prout in fodinis mif- 

 nicis turn jura condita, quibus operas regerentur. Nihilominus ta- 

 men Mae rufticis abutentes infolentius agebant. Eo magis dolebat 

 miferis, quod praeter folitum onera imponerentur, nullo emolu- 

 mento: Siiriul quia res erat cum hominibus, quibufcum nullo lin- 

 guae commercio tarn brevi familiaritas intercedes potuit, alienati 

 magis animi. Itaque coierunt aliqui paroeciarum ruftici, ut ope- 

 rants aut affligerent, aut iis locis expellerent. Sed petulantia ip- 

 forum a praefidibus, quos dixi, refrenata. Ac pauci quidam poft 

 mandato regis, extreme fupplicio affedti, reliquis alia mulda irro- 

 gata, prout quifque culpas affinis, aut a noxa immunis reperieba- 



tur ? 



