THE JOURNEY UP. 37 



sound which we heard was the shrieking and 

 groaning of the machinery from the different 

 works. The town itself seemed plague- struck ; 

 dirty little houses, the residences of the miners, 

 ran out in irregular streets up to the mouths of 

 the pits ; and as most of the houses in the town 

 were covered with sheet copper, the very air was 

 impregnated with its noisome exhalations. There 

 was, however, a very curious old church here, 

 with copper doors. As usual, I found out the 

 museum, in the town, which was in a very primi- 

 tive condition, and on my making inquiries of one 

 of the professors whether he knew how many 

 species of charr used to be met with in the lakes 

 round here, he candidly confessed that he knew 

 nothing at all about the charr, except that it was 

 an excellent fish for the table. We had- to pass 

 more than half a day and a night in this very 

 nasty disagreeable little town, for the railway 

 train to Gefle only runs once a day, at 9 a.m., 

 and we arrived too late to catch this. In the 

 afternoon, for want of something to do, I walked 

 out to inspect the site of the mines ; but I will 

 not weary the reader with a description of what I 

 saw. If he has never seen a copper mine district 

 he has lost very little ; and if he has, he knows 

 exactly what I saw. I believe formerly the yield 

 of these mines was very great, something like 



