x8S NATURAL H 1 .8 T O R Y of N RWA% 



in the progrefs of the working, yet they are carried on with the 

 ufual diligence, in hopes of their proving better. 



It has been found that the . filver- ore is not, as v/as at firft im- 

 agined, limited to this fmgle mountain, which lies between the 

 river Jordal and Kongfberg; but extends its veins for fome miles 

 throughout the adjacent difbicls, which is proved by the new 

 mines which are frcaii time to time undertaken in feveral places, 

 and rnoft of them, by the blefTmg of Providence carried on, very 

 profperoufly. Old God's bleffing, one of the rhoft ancient and 

 rich among all the mines, which, fometimesy within a week, has 

 yielded fome hundreds of pounds of rich ore, never fails to ftrike 

 the beholder with its aftonifKing depths --'being* no lefs than one 

 The deepen hundred and eighty perpendicular fathoms, and the circumfer- 

 ence at the bottom forms a clear of fome hundred fathoms. The 

 fight of fo many piles of wood burning on all fides, thirty or forty 

 in number, in tkisi gloomy, cavern, : and continually fed in order 

 to mollify the (lone, in the profecutioriof the mine, feems, ac- 

 cording to the common idea, an image of hell, and the fwarms 

 of miners buftling about in habits according to their feveral oc- 

 cupations, may well pafs for fo many; devils, especially, when as 

 a fignal that a mine is going to be fprung in this or that courfe, 

 they roar out, Berg-livet ! Berg-livet ! Take care of your lives ! 

 I fhall here briefly repeat the words of a gentleman well /killed 

 in mining, Mr. Eman, Suedenborg, in the preface of his book 

 called Regnum Subterraneum, where he fays of thefe Kongfberg 

 filver-mines, which are vifited by the travelling German-miners, 

 as aJycamm in their fcience, to which Europe has not an equal; 

 « Quid Norvegue in fodinis 'Kongfbergenfibus, ubi jam perfecu- 

 lum vix nifi argentum nativum, et femel iterumque etiam aurum, 

 tanquam aura? melioris progenies, in lucem et diem gelidiffimum 

 pleniffimo fepe cornu prodierat, cujus annuum proventum ab 

 anno 171 1, ad 1724. fiftere volupe'eft, ut inde miranda nature 

 phenomena in regno fubterraneo exiftentia luculentius contem- 

 plari Hceat- Ex illis- fodinis du&se font argenti multam partem 

 nativi, 



T Anno 



