NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. tgg 



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

 copper-mine found on the ifland of Smolen, not far from the 

 leffer Fofen, now called Chriftianfand, but diffenfions, and other 

 caufes haye 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 Chriftiania, which 

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

 befldes fome fflver, fixty or feventy pound of copper. 



SECT. XII. 



Iron, which Pliny juftly calls, optimum vita? peffimumque in- Of iron in 

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

 of Chriftianfand, 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, ftone, and moorifh 

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

 feveral fubftances of which our earth is compofed, none is more Vol. xxxv.' 

 generally found than iron, this metal being refident not only ; ' 4 °" 

 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 gradual 

 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 fayino- 

 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 mail 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. Tom. iu. p. 117 he fa V s' 

 « Metalh hujus (ferri) ex primo illo, juxta noftram hypothefin reliquis etiam nobili- 

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

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

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

 quas haftenus recenfuimus, vifum nobis eft, pofle probabiliter ftatui, communem 

 quendam halitum metalhcum feu fpiritum ex penitioribus terrse (veluti femen ibi lege 

 conditons reconditum) ad iupcraciem ufque elevari, tamque montium partes pervt 

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

 l r>i atl ° ne 'F*? 11 *™ ftruft ^ tapides ac fecretionis iuccorum ibi concurren- 



tium ad difterentiam ftrudurc ac porofitatis terrs components planities. 



Pa *t I, F f f oil 



