i8a NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



tur, quum de fceleris autoribus eft inquifitum. Verum, quum 

 initia fodinarum laeta fuerint operae pretium, diu tamen non ad- 

 modum factum. Nam in paucis annis rex fatigatus fumptibus 

 illi inexhauftis laboribus ceptum diftruere. Caufa ferebatur quod 

 emanabat tantum aquae a cavernis terras, ut penetrari, quo necefle 

 efTet, fine fubinergendi periculo non potuerit. 



Afterwards, page 282, ad an. 1545, he fpeaks of another tu- 

 mult in oppofition to the oppreilive violations of the liberties of 

 the peafants on account of the mines. It is poffible that the fame 

 turbulent fpirit with which at that time, under the pretence of 

 chriftian liberty, the peafants in Germany were animated to take 

 arms againft their fuperiors, in their famous ruftic war, might alfo 

 have fpread its infection here; though nothing certain can be ad- 

 vanced on this head. 



Formerly, likewife, a filver-mine was worked at Heddemark, 

 which according to the account of A. Berndfen, in the year 1630, 

 yielded a ftone of fine filver, and gave hopes of opening more 

 grooves in that country, but nothing further has been heard of it. 

 Likewife in Eger, and Telemark, filver-ores have been found 

 producing eight ounces and a half of pure filver per quintal. Of 

 other .conjectures and reports of filver-ore difcovered in Ryefkelt, 

 Hardanger, Sundfiord, and other northern provinces, there is no 

 fpeaking pofitively, till they have undergone the examination of 

 perfons verfed in thofe matters, nothing being more common here 

 than upon a peafant's growing fuddenly rich, a whifper flies about 

 that he has found a rich ore, and conceals it for his own private 

 profit, though this is generally no more than the fuggeftion of 

 envy. That near Solein in the manor of Lavigen, on the borders 

 of Sundfiord, there is a river in which is found the fcoriae of filver- 

 ore, I have unqueftionable information from the prefent minifter 

 there, Mr. Thomas Sommer, in a letter of the 16th of October, 

 1750. There is likewife a dubious report concerning fuch a river 

 in Sundmoer, in the pariih of Oerfkoug. An exhausted filver- 

 mine in the parifh of Ranen in the government of Helgeland, 

 has alfo long been talked of, but this was only copper-ore, and fo 

 poor, as never to requite the charge and labour. However, at 

 the inland extremity of this diftrict, on the borders of Sweden, is 

 a mine containing both filver and lead-ore, and difcovered by the 

 T Swedes, 



