326 
Biographical Notice of Baron Hermelm. 
Born at Stockholm in 1744, of a noble family, his father ha- 
ving attained the eminent dignity of Senator of the kingdom, he 
was fortunately destined to undertake the administration of the 
mines, the most important source of wealth which Sweden pos- 
sesses. He commenced by visiting the principal establishments 
of this kind in the kingdom, and paid particular attention to the 
celebrated copper-mine of Fahlun , where he contributed to esta- 
blish a manufacture of vitriol, sulphur, and colcothar. He was 
also actively occupied with the gold-mine of TEdelfors. 
After having acquired a profound knowledge of every thing 
remarkable in this department that Scandinavia presented, he 
obtained permission to visit foreign countries also. He travelled 
through Germany, the Low Countries, and France, and em- 
barked for America ; charged, at the same time, on the part of 
Sweden, with a political mission to the United States. He visited 
almost ail parts of this country, and returned to Sweden, by Eng- 
land, towards the end of 1784. 
He now became anxious to improve the knowledge of the geo- 
graphy, geology, and statistics of Sweden, which seemed to him 
to be as yet in a very imperfect condition. He therefore caused 
to be explored, at his own expence, the northern provinces of the 
kingdom, which were less known than the others. The result 
of these journeys, was a map of Westro-Bothnia and Lapland; 
and this was the commencement of the great geographical enter- 
prise to which Baron Hermelin devoted, for a period of fifteen 
years, his most assiduous cares, and a great part of his fortune. 
Unfortunately, the publication of the twenty-six first maps ha- 
ving exhausted his pecuniary resources, he was obliged, in 1810, 
to give up the remaining part of the work to a company ; but he 
acted a principal part in this association, and had the happiness, 
before his death, of seeing this grand atlas of Sweden entirely 
completed,-— a monument raised to science, and his country, by 
a single individual, at the expence of the greatest sacrifices. 
His patriotic efforts were not limited to this single enterprise, 
great as it was. Feeling for the extreme poverty to which the 
inhabitants of the most northern provinces of Sweden are re- 
duced, and knowing the abundance and productiveness of the 
ores of iron which these provinces possess, he judged that the 
best means of being useful to them, would be to establish fur- 
